In terms of Northern Ireland, Ophelia turned out to be a damp squib.
Where I live in the middle of the province, the strongest winds were actually when I was out the back finishing off bringing things indoors in preparation for the coming storm! It was no worse than the type of bad storms that we are used to.
The reason we got off so lightly is that Ophelia took a different course to what had been forecast. Consequently, she missed most of the province.
The same cannot be said for the South. It was really badly affected. 3 people killed; a peak of 360,000 without power (and 245,000 still without); 20,000 currently without water (largely due to the power cuts affecting water plants); and damage pretty much across the whole country.
You know, a lot of people were confused when the whole of the South was put on a Red weather warning, whereas the whole of the North was put on an Amber weather warning. There were jokes of "does the weather change when you reach the border?!" Although the difference was due to the Met Offices in the two countries using different criteria, it actually turned out to be right.
The eye of Ophelia pretty much hugged the south and west coast of the island. And whilst the Atlantic coast is used to stormy weather, this was a lot worse than normal, and caused a lot of damage in those counties.
Tutto lives on the west coast, so I hope she hasn't been too badly affected.
The most
dramatic pictures of damage came from Cork City Football Club's stadium, where the roof of one of the stands collapsed. And much to my surprise, the match with Derry City to be played there tonight is
going ahead!
To finish off, here is a video of a plane coming from Faro landing at Dublin Airport:
https://twitter.com/SeanHassett/status/919916752863154176
Really feel for the people on board. Well done to the pilot for getting her down in one piece!
All in all, my thoughts go out to everybody that was affected by Ophelia.
CaroLiza_fan
(Although, others are staying open).
