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HEUSTON STATION IS relatively empty at 6.30 in the morning. The 7am train to Cork is on time and heading from platform five, according to the departures board.
When I try to board the train on platform five, an Irish Rail worker stops me.
“The train is actually going from platform two,” he says. “Sorry about that. It always goes from platform five. But this is unprecedented.”
This is not the first time someone says the word unprecedented, in a day where I get to see how Cork was one of the counties hit hardest by Storm Ophelia.
When the train is at a standstill for the guts of half an hour at Charleville, the driver comes over the intercom and says simply: “Sorry for the delay, it’s because of Storm Ophelia.”
Counting the cost
Ophelia hit Cork hard.
Over 20 major roads in Cork were still closed this morning as people travelled to work around the county. ESB’s Powercheck showed numerous clusters of areas without power, with no estimate on when it would be returned.
Trees were still down and blocking roads all over the city, as dozens of city council crews worked round the clock to prioritise and remove debris from the roads.
“There’s some very serious large scale damage, and an awful lot more small scale damage done,” Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire told TheJournal.ie.
Wind speeds reached over 120kph in this part of Cork yesterday, but it was a bright, sunny day in Douglas today. However the after effects of Storm Ophelia were still visible.
Efforts are already underway to fix the roof at the hall in the Douglas school, with dramatic footage shared on social media showing the roof flying off in the fierce winds.
With no pupils in schools across the country for a second day, workers were busy trying to shift the wreckage on the school grounds.
The clean up begins after the roof blew off the hall at Douglas Community School in Cork #ophelia pic.twitter.com/cypfyantzU
— Sean Murray (@SeanMJourno) October 17, 2017
Down the road in the (re-opened) local Tesco, the community was still reeling from yesterday’s storm.
“We were genuinely scared,” one woman said, who was with her two young children. “The wind started battering the windows and I thought it was going to cave in. And then we lost the power. We don’t know how long it’ll be gone for.”
An elderly woman said that she had heard the warning about the storm on Sunday evening.
“I wasn’t able to go the shops,” she said. “But I went out my back garden at one stage, and I can say I never felt wind like it. Unprecedented they called it. They were right.”
A taxi driver tells me he braved the elements and went out to work at 6am.
“It was just incredible,” he said. “The winds were just crazy. I only went out for a few hours. I knew when I started seeing debris on the roads it was time to come home.
I went out again after it cleared at around 7pm. By then, with so much after falling on the roads, it was like driving through a war zone.
A worker in a café closer to the city centre said: “It was unbelievable. The house across from me – the roof fell off.
The roads were littered. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was unprecedented. I stepped out for a minute from the café and thought I heard thunder, and sure I was fighting them all to get back in first.
About 15 minutes up the road from Douglas, over a dozen workers were busying themselves at Turner’s Cross stadium, with Cork City due to play a pivotal football game with Derry City this evening.
Yesterday, the storm blew one of the stands apart. The game was given the all-clear to be played but, at around 1.30pm today, the debris was far from cleared.
One of the worst affected roads was on Centre Park Road, on the south side of the city.
“Here, around 20% of all the fallen trees in Cork city fell,” Deputy Lord Mayor Fergal Dennehy tells TheJournal.ie.
Just after midday today, some of the roughly 30 trees that fell had been cleared, but there were still a significant number blocking the road.
Some the trees here were decades old, with strong roots, but were easily overturned by Ophelia.
This was one example of how the city was affected. One of the workers helping to clear the debris said that it was the third place he’d been to do the same job since 6am this morning.
“We’ve been prioritising,” he said. “It’s all about doing our bit. Get the place back up and running.”
Clean up efforts
Back in Deputy Lord Mayor Dennehy’s office, he outlined how the city responded and what is now being done to undo the damage caused by Ophelia.
He told TheJournal.ie: “It’s all about clean up now. We have around 150 trees that have fallen and are blocking roads – that we know of.
Our biggest fear is that some buildings may have sustained structural damage that hasn’t shown yet, and will only become apparent in the next few days. The best thing though is that we didn’t have a casualty or a fatality.
Having faced crises such as flooding in recent years, Sinn Féin’s Ó Laoghaire said the city was well prepared for Ophelia.
“In terms of the damage done to property, it’s not as bad as recent floods,” he said. “We’ve had people out round the clock working on this and credit to them, the council and all the emergency services.”
Dennehy said that the multi-agency crisis management team clicked into gear at the weekend and began monitoring the situation at an early stage.
He said: “Our engineers determined that it was highly likely we wouldn’t flood, so then it was all about following the storm hour by hour.
We now have about a week’s worth of clean up now, and we have 300 staff on that. They started at 5pm yesterday, as soon as the storm had passed. We reacted only to life or death situations yesterday, because we were putting our own staff at risk. On behalf of the Lord Mayor’s office, I want to thank all the council staff and the emergency services for their stellar work.
Dennehy added that the crisis team payed so much attention to the storm’s progress because hadn’t seen the like of Ophelia before. I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say next.
“This was a storm that wasn’t usual,” he said. “It wasn’t following normal path lines. Our biggest fear from the storm was that it was so unprecedented, we didn’t know how it would go.”
The damage caused to the city and county will almost certainly run into the millions of euro. There is a lot of work to be done certainly.
But with Cork City on course to win Irish football’s premier division to a packed crowd this evening, people back to work, back out and about on the streets on a sunny day, a resilient Cork was bouncing back just a day after it got hit with the worst storm in 50 years. Unprecedented.
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Have yis nothing better to investigate ? The country is falling apart at the seams and you’re looking at vape shops ? Jesus wept…
@Regular John: Country is falling apart? Wtd are on about? Jesus fkin wept..
@Regular John: This is the Journal doing the dirty work of the anti vaping fraternity in this county, any day now another individual with a chip on his shoulder with vaping will be on “Newstalk” between the hours of 4 and 7pm weekdays banging on with more negativity regarding vaping.
@Ian: wtf are u on about?
@Leonard Barry: Vaping, specifically single use vapes should be banned. It’s an excuse for useless smokers who aren’t smart enough to stop.
@I’m a robot Robot:only uprising you’re dying is up rising ou the bed in the mornings to post this shi. The coolock gang holing hands with fenian hating orange men telling us about foreign took eeeer jerrrbs. Sad
@I’m a robot Robot: because you just can’t handle the world we live in, you want to start a revolution?
@I’m a robot Robot: It’s odd that, while the majority of murders in Ireland are committed by Irish people against Irish people, you seem to ignore those particular victims. Why is that ? Why would someone be so focused on crime committed by people with darker skin tones, yet completely ignore crime committed by those whose skin tone matches his own ? You’ll deny it, of course, but we all see you. We all know what you are.
@Ian: ponse
Oh ffs…seriously…are vapes the new crack! Undercover investigation, Irelands illicit vape market..WOW!:Banner headline news!
Well done Conor & Patricia…exposing this blight on society, these monsters must be stopped at any cost…give me a break!
@damien leen: phools and their money … no sympathy
In the Uk, you can attend stop smoking clinics in your doctors surgery with a nurse and they encourage you to vape instead of smoking. They advise you to buy your vape/juice from reputable sources, supermarkets, chain newsagents etc. It does make a difference. I spend about £2.50 a week on juice. At the weekly clinic they test your lung capacity to show you the difference after stopping using tobacco products. Craving goes too after a while. If you’re going to vape buy from reputable retailers.
@Ayo Reilly: Just stop smoking you lazy turd. It’s easy.
Did u happen to stop at any shop and see them selling cigarettes…wait no, that’s OK, they’ve taxed the crap out of them so that’s OK!
@Hugh McGanus: read that rubbish..life is for living u absolute melt!
@damien leen: life is for living and yet here you are whinging on a story you didn’t even read
Just ban the poxy things
Wow, out of all the issues effecting this country from why the health care system is on the brink to some of the most expensive insurance and utlilties with a poor return in many cases, and this is the big stort the journal goes after.
@Patrick Newell: the Bloomberg Foundation pays media outlets globally to spread vaping misinformation. Wonder if The Journal is in their pay? They should “investigate” that ;)
And how come the gardai can’t do an investigation and prosecuted before now?
More shock horror anti vaping nonsense from The Journal. Health warnings not in irish! Better value products over the tiny restrictive 2ml limit! The article tries to suggest that this market is unregulated but then goes on to quote the onerous EU TPD. Absolute storm in a teacup but damaging none the less as will discourage smokers from making the switch to a far safer product. Bottom line is don’t buy vapes in those dodgy stores. Those places sell all sorts of dodgy products from phones to toys. There are many specialist vape shops on the high street with knowledgeable staff to advise smokers looking to quit. The irony of this anti harm reduction campaign is that it will lead to taxing and further restrictions that will keep people smoking and create a far bigger black market.
@NoelDublin: Spot on.
Pretty sure there’s gonna be a huge increase in lung cancers and mouth and throat cancers in a few years time due to the excessive and extreme chemicals in these vapes.
You know there’s formaldehyde in these ? The same liquid funeral homes use to embalm dead bodies ?! Why would you want to inhale this? Great article highlighting the dangers of these vapes and showing just how easy they are to buy and the excessive toxic substances and volumes within them. These will kill you. !
@Unknown User: Pretty sure you’re lying. Name a single brand sold under EU regulations that contains formaldehyde? Just one. No?
@Unknown User: Evidence of your claims? None.
@Unknown User: Do you think that if you make up lies and post it in The Journal comment section people will believe you?
Bring into law that one can only buy a vape with a prescription
@Dr Albert S Meinheimer: bring in a law to make tobacco and cigarettes prescription only. Better no?
@NoelDublin: no because the vapes were originally designed to help quit smoking. A “healthy”alternative So let it be by prescription only
I started smoking cigarettes at 13.
I gave up at 42 when vapes came on the market 10 years ago.
I feel far much healthier now then ever. I save a fortune (€5 10 mil bottle) lasts me 3 days a pack of cigarettes around €17/18 would only last me a day. From what I read the jury is still out out on adults switching out and the health benefits.
I’ve never had so much as a cough since my last cigarette. I’m not speaking for everyone just my experience.
Monday Morning entertainment, brought to you by The Journal.
Who cares
Ireland’s biggest downfall is its ability to make rules but then never enforces them. Constantly hoping for good will. And every time something like this is highlighted as a problem the problem spouted from authorities is we need better education. We just don’t hold people to account for breaking the rules.
Bigger issues going on in this country than vapes. Far more serious but you choose to ignore them for this nonsense go away out of that
Laying the foundations for taxation of vapes
Get a life ffs
The journal should b done by the law for using kids to go out to the shops buying vapes and paying them peanuts and say they were undercover journalists for the journal to unsuspecting shopkeeper s have they no understanding of the illegally using kids as their Muppets I for one hope the law will do them so they won’t use these underhanded tactics again
@liam ward: the gards use kids to trap shop keepers selling alcohol to miners.
@Gavin Smartr: Surely they’re entitled to a drink after a hard day’s graft down the mine?
@Gavin Smartr: Mineral mining is among the world’s most hazardous occupations. It is especially dangerous in southern Africa, where mining activity is a leading cause of HIV and tuberculosis epidemics. Inside mines, silica dust exposure causes long-term pulmonary damage.
As a retailer that’s part of a well known franchise, we’re inspected constantly. Tobacco must be out of view, alcohol must be sectioned off, random age checks for any age restricted products, paperwork to be completed everyday,a mop for every area, a brush for every area,a separate sink for every possible thing that a sink is used for, they even check the cleaning chemicals we use and every chemical needs it’s own paperwork, if a temperature of a fridge is half a degree away from the recommended temperature it’s considered unsafe, we’re happy to implement all these rules and regulations as it does set a good standard, it’s just frustrating that these shops can put a display of bongs in their window yet if we use the wrong coloured cloth to wipe a surface we’re a danger to public health.
THE JOURNAL INVESTIGATES https://youtu.be/UVWq9BqJCHY
First thing I do in the morning is have a vape and last thing at night. Didn’t smoke half as many cigarettes when I was on them..
“The hobby” ….
Probably best country in the world to live at present time but there’s room for improvement
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