Rivers still badly swollen and flooding is possibleThe National Coordination Group met today (10th February 2014) after the meeting of the Government Task Force on Emergency Planning in the (NECC) National Emergency Coordination Centre to discuss the on-going severe weather and the threat posed by possible river flooding, to review the response to date, to assess the impact of the storms on infrastructure and communities and to ensure that the response of relevant local authorities, Government Departments and Agencies continues to be coordinated.
Met Éireann has advised that the current unsettled spell will continue and Wednesday and Friday will bring the threat of further storms. As stated previously additional rainfall will serve to top up the already near capacity of our rivers and still poses a risk. However, the situation has improved somewhat over the weekend and the river levels have stabilised.
Each storm and severe weather warning issued by Met Eireann is monitored by the Department as lead Government department for severe weather emergencies and contact is on-going with Met Eireann, the local authorities and the transport and energy sectors. Local Authorities remain on high alert. Currently there is no Met Éireann warning in operation
The National Co-ordination Group will continue to monitor the situation closely. The local authorities will continue to monitor the position in relation to river levels generally. The ESB are monitoring the levels on the rivers Liffey, Lee and Shannon and discharges are being managed in conjunction with local authorities
The emergency services, local authority workers & state agencies remain on alert.
The public have been reminded to continue to follow the weather warning and to heed the safety messages of the authorities.
ENDS
Additional Information
The response to all emergencies is appropriately locally-led in the first instance (by relevant local authorities in the case of severe weather). The Department of the Environment, Community & Local Government monitors the situation and determines if a Severe Weather National Co-ordination Group should be convened if certain trigger conditions are arrived at or where the local response is overwhelmed and central assistance might be required, while these triggers were not met, that National Co-ordination Group has convened, and will continue to convene to ensure that all players at government level are joined up.
The Defence Forces
The Defence Forces and the Civil Defence remain on standby should the situation deteriorate.
Weather Warnings are presented in three categories:
A. STATUS YELLOW - Weather Alert - Be Aware
The concept behind YELLOW level weather alerts is to notify those who are at risk because of their location and/or activity, and to allow them to take preventative action. It is implicit that YELLOW level weather alerts are for weather conditions that do not pose an immediate threat to the general population, but only to those exposed to risk by nature of their location and/or activity.
B. STATUS ORANGE - Weather Warning - Be Prepared
This category of ORANGE level weather warnings is for weather conditions which have the capacity to impact significantly on people in the affected areas. The issue of an Orange level weather warning implies that all recipients in the affected areas should prepare themselves in an appropriate way for the anticipated conditions.
C. STATUS RED - Severe Weather Warning - Take Action
The issue of RED level severe weather warnings should be a comparatively rare event and implies that recipients take action to protect themselves and/or their properties; this could be by moving their families out of the danger zone temporarily; by staying indoors; or by other specific actions aimed at mitigating the effects of the weather conditions
Other Agencies
Other state agencies and departments who are involved in the co-ordinated response are OPW, Local Authorities, Met Eireann, An Garda Síochána, ESB, Defence Forces, Civil Defence, Departments of Environment Community & Local Government, Health and Children, Social Protection, Communications Energy & Natural Resources, Transport and Defence.
The Department of Social Protection is playing an important role in assisting households in the immediate aftermath of the recent severe weather conditions. Officials are continuing to engage with staff in the relevant local authorities and Community Welfare Service contact details are being provided to those seeking support. Exceptional Needs and Urgent Needs Payments are provided on a year-round basis by the Community Welfare Service to help customers to meet essential expenditure arising from a once-off exceptional or urgent need, and the costs of same are met from within the yearly budgetary allocation set aside for the scheme.
There is a body of information in relation to the levels of water in our major rivers on www.waterlevel.ie there is also advice on how to deal with episodes of flooding on www.flooding.ie the public are advised to check out these websites or to contact their local authority for further information.