The remnants of Hurricane Ophelia on Monday slammed into Ireland with wind gusts of up to 130kph, killing at least three people, grounding planes, shutting schools and causing widespread power outages.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar urged people to stay indoors until the storm passed.
Tens of thousands of homes were without power and the military was placed on standby.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Some hurricane-force gusts were reported 30 years to the day after a weather event dubbed the “Great Storm of 1987” battered southern England.
“It is a very dangerous storm,” Varadkar said.
“The last time there was a storm this severe, 11 lives were lost,” he added, referring to Hurricane Debbie, which hit Ireland in 1961.
Although Ophelia has been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, the Irish National Emergency Coordination Group on Severe Weather warned that the storm is still “unprecedented, with serious life-threatening conditions.”
Ireland’s weather service, Met Eireann, described the storm as the most powerful on record to have ever been this far east in the Atlantic Ocean.
Forecasters warned of flying debris, such as tiles blown from roofs.
Large waves around coastal districts tossed sand and rocks onto coastal roads, seafronts and properties.
Wind warnings were in place for Northern Ireland, parts of Wales and western parts of England. Planes were grounded at several locations.
About 130 flights were canceled at Dublin airport, while flights were also grounded at Manchester airport.
Both Ryanair and Easy Jet canceled flights at Belfast airport, with more cancelations expected.
In parts of Britain and in France’s Brittany region, the sky turned an eerie color as Ophelia’s winds carried a mix of sand from the Sahara, and particles from forest fires in Spain and Portugal.
On social media, people posted pictures of London landmarks against yellow-orange skies.
A non-profit group that provides coastal lifesaving services in Britain warned people to stay away from the sea.
Matt Crofts of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution said coastal waters are “particularly dangerous and unpredictable, with large waves and swells being a major risk.”
“The sea is far more powerful than you think and your chances of survival are slim if you are dragged into the swell,” he said.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion