Storm Barra brings controversy along with wind
As I write, the full extent of the damage done by Storm Barra is still not clear. It was said to have ended at 5pm yesterday, although controversially, schools and colleges were closed in 12 counties yesterday.
It’s still odd to see comments on social media by people suggesting that it was all a bit over the top and the storm ‘was only a bit of wind’ in their area.
Their area is not every area and there were trees down and power outages all over the country. There was flooding in Bantry, Youghal and Cork city on Tuesday morning. A truck was overturned on the M8 near Fermoy.
Storm Barra brought severe and damaging wind gusts with a wind gust of 156km/h recorded at Fastnet Lighthouse and 113 km/h recorded at 6am on Sherkin Island. These are serious winds, quite a bit in excess of Storm Ophelia’s levels.
According to Cork County Council, the worst affected area in Cork on Tuesday was Bantry, where 28 primarily commercial premises were flooded by high tide after 5.30am.
The council said the tide was extremely high due to high astronomical tide, storm surcharging and wave action. This combined to go over the temporary defences and surcharged the storm system within the town.
Flooding also occurred on the Back Street in Youghal which receded.
The Department of Children Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth also advised that all early learning and care and school age childcare services in a red or orange alert area remain closed yesterday, Wednesday after the worst of the storm had passed. That was to allow for assessment of the impact of Storm Barra to take place and was controversial.
Where I live, Storm Ophelia in 2017 seemed to be much more powerful, although I haven’t been out at all to see the aftermath. As a journalist, I would have liked to have seen the effects of this major storm but I couldn’t as my young son tested positive for Covid-19. I tested negative but I still have to self-isolate for a minimum of five days.
That meant we couldn’t get food on Monday but hopefully supermarkets will be back doing deliveries today!
After filling out a number of HSE forms online, it was determined that I and my partner were selected for home antigen testing. The HSE are due to send home antigen test kits to us both, although they haven’t arrived yet.
That’s probably due to Storm Barra in fairness. I’m supposed to do the test at designated times. I’m to do three antigen tests with two days between each test.
I already had a cough so I got the PCR test on Sunday with my son who tested positive. He has a cough too, but is otherwise fine thankfully.
Hopefully we only have to isolate for five days, although it could be much longer if we test positive at some stage during those five days. Being unable to leave the house really makes you value your freedom though!
Stay safe out there folks!