Fingal County Council Storm Emma – Situation Update (21:00)

Fingal County Council’s Crisis Management Team had its second Conference Call of the day at 8pm this evening. Updates were given in relation to situations at local, regional and national level. Met Éireann’s Red Status Warning has been extended to 9am tomorrow morning. Motorists are being asked to only drive in emergency situations and are warned that driving conditions will deteriorate overnight while coastal routes are hazardous due to strong winds and high tides. Fingal County Council’s crews spent the day ploughing and salting those roads designated as Priority 1 and Priority 2 routes with their last run starting at 7pm this evening. Work in preparation for ploughing and gritting tomorrow will commence at 6am with runs scheduled for 7am. There will also be personnel on call to deal with any emergencies that may occur overnight. Additional crews will move into designated areas across the county tomorrow to grit and clear pedestrian areas in towns and villages. Council staff dealt with many issues throughout the day including the reopening of roads such as the R108 near Dublin Airport and the R130 south of Garristown which had been blocked by snow. The Estuary Road in Malahide has been closed until further notice because of flooding. Other issues included dealing with fallen trees and assisting an ambulance which became stuck near Lusk. Staff from Water Services oversaw the restoration of the normal water supply to houses in Killane, Man O’War, Bog of the Ring, Ring Commons and Naul Village after a power outage cause disruption to the supply for several hours this afternoon. There is a significant usage of water above normal demand in the Skerries, Lusk & Rush areas leading to a low level in the Thomastown Reservoir. Householders and other customers are urgently requested to ensure that taps are turned off and water usage minimised to help ensure that there will be no restrictions on supply from tomorrow. The Council’s public offices, libraries and graveyards will remain closed tomorrow. All public parks and recycling centres remain closed until further notice. Any changes to these arrangements will be posted on our social media accounts and our media bulletins. The Council continues to provide essential emergency services primarily through staff in our Operations, Water Services, Housing and Corporate Affairs Departments. Members of the public can submit reports of issues caused by snowfall and low temperatures to www.fixyourstreet.ie. These reports will be logged and assessed. Reports of people sleeping rough should be phoned to 1800 707 707 or posted online at http://www.homelessdublin.ie/report-rough-sleeper#1 Information is being continually posted on the Fingal Alerts app as well as our Twitter and Facebook accounts. The Crisis Management Team are scheduled to have another conference call at 10:30 tomorrow morning.