THE VOICES SECTION of TheJournal.ie usually gives a platform for personal stories to be told and expert opinions to be heard.
Today we’ve decided to hand it over to our commenters who are sharing their experiences of Storm Emma.
From treacherous driving conditions to a near national bread shortage – you have a lot to say about the Beast from the East and all the disruptions that came with it.
Brian O’Loughlin saw the funny side to the coverage, coming in with this comment in yesterday’s liveblog:
They could have at least warned us about this. Not a peep about this all week in the media.
Others discussed their experiences of trying to get to work. Daniel O’Connell said:
Got up at 5am here in Navan, place covered and tried to drive to work, turned back, car sliding all over the place, I work in Wexford and ye can forget about driving over 2 hours in that. Called in. I done it before when Storm Ophelia hit as I work at the coastline and was sent back home. I ain’t chancing it again.
Sarah Casey also described turning around when she realised she might not get home:
Tried to make it to work this morning but ended up having to turn around as I might not get home again later. City centre roads in Dublin terrible and if the sludge freezes they will be treacherous. Worst thing though is that pedestrians continue just to cross in traffic. Cars just can’t stop like they normally can in these conditions. Saw some very near misses. EVERYONE needs to take it slow.
There was a lengthy discussion about Red weather warning and when they should be used.
Niall Ó Cofaigh made the point that the Red warning is important to inform vulnerable people:
@Padraig: are you a farmer, or a long distance lorry driver, have you breathing issues or some other disability that could affect your mobility, are you trying to operate an airline, or get to school before 9am to open up. Are you waiting for a home carer to call to help you out of bed or are you young, healthy and well able to take care of yourself?A Red warning may not affect you but can affect others – the Red is a warning level that says take action now if you are affected. For some I know directly, their home care help may be unable to make it and family or neighbours may need to step in. For some I know directly they do not have to worry about missing that hospital appointment and being bumped back 6 months on a waiting list.We need to think of others and not just how this snow will affect us before assessing the necessity to have a Red warning level.
Others were critical about how the situation was being handled. Honeybee said:
Frustrating that information is not flowing from a live desk set up by the emergency weather group who have been meeting all week, the luas website is still saying services operating normally yet there is no service on parts of the green and red lines, buses are infrequent and only on national routes,we should not be trying to seek out information, it should be readily available,thought that was the whole idea of preplanning, seemingly not.
There were A LOT of comments about bread – like this one from WJH.
I have bread to make breadballs for the kids to throw in the morning. I will be using bread as shaving foam. Bread to light the fire. Bread to use as fabric conditioner. Bread to use as shower gel. Bread to wash my hair. Bread to connect to my WiFi. And I may eat some bread too. Bloody bread…
Meanwhile, PearsantachtMór decided to get very practical with this informative comment:
@Conor O’Neill: 250g whole meal flour, 200g plain flour, 1tsp salt, 1tsp baking soda, 1 egg and 350ml buttermilk. Honey/sugar optional.Chuck it in a bowl and mix and lob it on a tray, cut a cross on the top. About 45 mins and knock on the base when for a hollow sound when you think it’s done.
We’ll end with this comment from Chris Kirk, who reminded us to take care of the birds.
“It might seem trivial but don’t forget to feed the birds and keep their feeders full during this cold snap.”
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