National help urged for future Laois extreme weather events

The vulnerability of Laois to extreme weather events was starkly outlined at the Monday, January 27 meeting of Laois County Council, with warnings that the county needs more support to cope.

Within eight days, the local authority had to rally 50 staff at all hours to deal with snow, ice and then the devastating Storm Éowyn.

In the hours after the storm last Friday, council staff worked to clear 120 trees off Laois roads to make them safe enough for motorists.

Over the previous week, 50 staff members were redirected to deal with the extreme weather.

On January 4 the snow arrived to a depth of 20cm in parts, with nearly 1m deep snow drifts.

That was followed by -7 degree temperations over the week. Road crews spread 1,250 tonnes of salt on 480km of main roads, a total of 16 times, along with snow ploughing.

They set up salt bins at 30 locations around the county.

Road workers prioritised access to hospitals and nursing homes, footpaths in town centres, churches and graveyards for funerals, schools and streets, and locations where vulnerable people needed medical services.

As the work to restore electricity around Laois continues, more outages and road blockages will happen, councillors warn, due to trees next to powerlines and roads.

Cllr Ollie Clooney warns “you don't have to have a storm”.

“A gust of wind and electricity is gone. Trees are left too close to wires. Something has to be done about trees near roads. They pose a danger to wires and roads. We need to do something, if you believe the experts that we're going to get more storms.

“I'd like to see more staff employed and less contractors. Somebody has to shake the ESB,” he said.

The council cannot cope alone with severe weather, Cathaoirleach Cllr Padraig Fleming said.

He tabled a motion to the meeting asking for a national Government protocol for snow and ice severe weather events.

“There's a lot of hilly areas in eastern Laois, some are 1,000 feet above sea level. On the seventh day we were still clearing roads of snow. There's no gritting on rural roads. It's not good enough to leave it to the council to do the job in bad times. Some people couldn't get to work for four days. We need a plan to take immediate action at a higher level in crises,” he said.

The Laois County Council CEO Michael Rainey outlined the level of work done in the busy past week.

“Thank you to all staff involved in the severe weather, not only out driving machines, but coordinating the response centrally.

“We spread 1,250 tonnes of salt, a huge volume, over the 7 or 8 days. There were 155 calls made to vulnerable persons.

“I’d also like to thank the staff and supporting agencies who responded to Storm Éowyn, we had staff in here on Friday from 4am to 5pm in our local coordination group, coordinating with key agencies. We had great support from An Garda Siochána who were present in this building as were the HSE. It was a really good example of how key agencies in the county come together to coordinate a response.

“We reestablished that local coordination group again yesterday (Sunday) morning on foot of a call from Government in relation to the humanitarian response. Again we had staff in yesterday morning and online. Reaching out to communities across the county to see ‘is there concerns’, 'have you families with no electricity, if so what can we do as a local authority to support' not just community groups but also vulnerable adults and families out there.

“Obviously there are families in this county still without electricity. And we have a helpline established, if there are people out there who need support, need services, need just bottles of water delivered to their house, contact us and we will do our best. I thank elected members for helping us to identify and contact people,” he said.

Director of Services Simon Walton defended their work to clear many trees owned by semi-state forestry company Coillte off public roads, after criticism by Cllr Ben Brennan who saidCoillte should have done the job.

“The priority for us is to protect people’s safety. There were 120 trees down on roads. We knew at 4am that that level of damage was likely. Our focus was to prioritise clearance. As soon as the orange warning expired at 12, you could see vehicles back on the road.

“Some trees cleared included those on private land, some the responsibility fell to us, some to Coillte. We don’t consider when we are in recovery phase. We clear the network as quickly as we can to enable life to get back to normal and ensure safety,” Mr Walton said.

“The allocation of costs is still possible. The council will recover some costs from the state. We do regularly speak to Coillte. Obviously it has trees that become vulnerable and they and other landowners must keep their boundaries maintained,” he said.

He also said he will talk to Coillte about creating a “buffer zone” between roads and their forest plantations.

Laois County Council's support line is 057 868 9301.