COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, November 13, 2017
MOTION NO.6
MOTION: Councillor C. O'Connor
That this South Dublin County Council applauds the endeavours of the Council's Emergency Team and all the workers involved in dealing with the challenge presented by Ophelia on 16th October last and in responding to the motion will the Chief Executive present a report in the matter and also confirm if he believes that any lessons were learned which will be useful for future challenges in that regard.
REPORT:
On Friday 13th October Met Eireann and the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management issued a Level Orange Weather Warning for gale force wind as Ex-hurricane Ophelia tracked across the country. Operational management and supervisors monitored the situation in conjunction with Met Eireann and the Eastern Region co-ordination centre and assessed and assigned standby crews for the weekend. The status Orange level warning remained in place until Sunday evening when a Status Red Warning was issued for the entire country. Following this SDCC issued a notice on the web site and via social media that the Parks, Libraries and Sports and Community facilities would be closed on Monday 16th October.
A meeting was organised for the Crisis Management Team for 8:30am on Monday morning. Notice was issued to Councillors and then to staff that the council offices would be closed from 12pm and all staff should be safely at their homes by this time. Operational staff remained on standby at home to respond if required.
South Dublin County Council participated in the Eastern Region co-ordination of the Principle Response Agencies (PRA’s). An incident room was set up by An Garda Síochána in Hardcourt Street, throughout Monday 16th conference calls were held to co-ordinate the effort of the 4 Dublin Authorities, Dublin Fire Brigade, the HSE and An Garda Síochána.
SDCC communicated information and updates to the public via social media and to the Councillors directly via emails throughout the storm. There were a total of 50 posts across the Facebook and Twitter platforms reaching approximately 167,000 and 175,000 respectively. These notices were also displayed on the SDCC website.
Approximately 140 trees came down in the storm and crews only responded to incidents in order to keep critical main roads such as the N81 clear during the storm. The main clean-up work occurred in the days following the storm.
The key lessons learned were that ongoing communication with the public was very important to keep them informed of the current situation and to reinforce the recommendation from the National Group that everyone should stay at home. This was also an important factor in reducing incidents and hence there was a reduced need to call PRA’s out to dangerous situations.
A Major Emergency was not declared in South Dublin County in this instance but the Regional Co-ordination and communication and the setting up of the Crisis Management Team are features of Major Emergency Management that were utilised successfully.
Tragically, three people lost their lives as the storm traversed the Country; however, there seems to be a consensus that this loss of life could have been considerably worse without the co-ordinated actions of all involved in the response.
A national Ex - Hurricane Ophelia debrief meeting is scheduled for November 22nd at which relevant staff from SDCC will attend, a report will be prepared incorporating the reports supplied from local authorities and the other organisations that participated at national level, the report will include issues identified and make recommendations to embed enhanced co-ordination and management of emergencies and so that lessons can be identified from this scenario to further refine and improve how we respond to other emergencies that will occur in the future.