Longford County Council crews commended for Storm Éowyn response

The response of Longford County Council and the local Civil Defence in the aftermath of the most powerful storm in 80 years was lauded by elected representatives at Monday's meeting of Granaard Municipal District members.

Elected members commended the action of the local authority and the volunteer based organisation that supports front line emergency services.

Right across the county Storm Éowyn brought record-breaking gusts that left homes, farms and businesses across the island without power.

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District Engineer David Coppinger said the current focus is on remedial works: “Storm Éowyn had a huge impact on all our resources. Much of our resources will be working on that for the rest of the week on the enormous amount of damage.”

Mr Coppinger said the storm “may have knocked thousands of trees down in the area”, adding: “we are still dealing with it, and will continue to do so for quite some time"

Barbara Heslin, Director of Services with Responsibility for Community, Library and Cultural Services, Corporate and Human Resources, said the elected representatives played a part in the local authorities response to the emergency: “It's was really important to have the eyes and ears out there on the ground where people needed our assistance. Particularly the most vulnerable members of our community.

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The council executive member spoke of the impact of Storm Éowyn: “We experienced the worst impacts of a storm in this area. There are a lot of local communities continuing to suffer. Longford County Council is aware that we are the ones that can offer support to those people most efficiently.”

Ms Heslin confirmed the council executive was meeting to discuss the humanitarian response to the emergency: “It's really important that you, as elected representative, feed back to us the issues that need to be resolved.”

Cllr Paraic Brady (FG) described the weather event as “the greatest natural wind disaster” he has ever seen. He said the State needs to adopt a “joined up thinking” approach to prepare for future incidents, particularly referencing the cutting down of trees near power lines.

Cllr Padraic McNamara (FG) agreed, and suggested the under-grounding of electricity cables as a potential project.

In regard to the power issue, Cllr David Cassidy suggested: “It would be better to put in place preventative measures so we don't find ourselves in this situation again.”

Cllr Turlough McGovern thaked council staff and volunteers for their efforts during the difficult time: “I want to complement David, the staff and the Civil Defence on all the work they have undertaken in the last few days.”