Two killed, thousands without power as freak storm hits Ireland

DUBLIN: Ireland was hit by an "unprecedented storm" on Monday that left two people dead, 120,000 homes and businesses without power and closed every school in the country.

A police spokesman said one woman was killed outside the village of Aglish, near the south coast, apparently by a tree falling on her car. "It’s a woman in her 50s. A female passenger was injured and is in Waterford hospital. She is in her 70s," he told AFP.

The police said a man had also died in an accident while he was clearing a fallen tree with a chainsaw near the town of Cahir in the south. Ophelia, the largest hurricane ever recorded so far east in the Atlantic Ocean and the furthest north since 1939, was downgraded to a storm before it hit the Irish coast but nonetheless wrought havoc.

The "violent and destructive winds" that hit the south and west would rapidly extend to the rest of the country, the Met Eireann national weather service said.

Flooding was also expected "due to either heavy thundery downpours and or storm surges in coastal areas. There is a danger to life and property," the agency said after issuing a red alert for the whole country.

Wind speeds reached 176 kilometres per hour at Fastnet Rock, Ireland’s southernmost point, while the fastest speeds recorded onshore were 156 kph at the entrance to Cork Harbour in the southwest.

Seventeen millimetres of rain fell at Valentia on the southwest coast, including nine millimetres in one hour.

Dublin Airport scrapped 135 flights; Cork Airport cancelled most flights in what it said was the worst storm seen in its 56-year history, while several services to and from Shannon, the third-biggest airport, were also grounded.

Most of those 120,000 customers without electricity would be without power overnight, the Electricity Supply Board said. "Stay indoors wherever you are until the storm has passed," Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told reporters.

"I don’t want anyone to think that this is anything other than a national emergency and a red alert. "Even after the storm has passed there will still be dangers. There will be trees on the ground and power lines down."