GOVERNMENT BRIEFING:HEAVY SNOWFALLS forecast for today and tomorrow could put authorities under an inordinate strain to keep the country's main roads open this weekend, the body co-ordinating a national response to the extreme weather conditions has warned.
As supplies of rock salt reached critically low levels, and with Met Éireann forecasting a “dangerous phase” of heavy snow tomorrow evening, Minister for the Environment John Gormley acknowledged the gravity of the situation.
The warning came after the National Emergency Response Committee met yesterday to discuss the continuing problems caused by the freeze which has gripped the country for three weeks.
The Minister for the Environment and key members of the committee said that the combination of heavy snows and quickly depleting supplies of rock salt placed the country at “danger” and “at risk in the short term”.
Meteorologist Gerald Fleming, head of general forecasting at Met Éireann, said that the country faced as situation unprecedented in 30 or 40 years. He said that temperatures have reached -12 or -13 degrees this week and the ground temperatures were sub-zero down to a depth of 30cm (12in).
He said that created a problem whereby if the weather improved, the rain would become ice when it fell on the ground.
He said the snow this weekend offered more “worrying possibilities” especially for the east and southeast of the country. “During Sunday afternoon and evening we come to another dangerous phase when we have another weather system coming in that could give us between 5cm and 10cm [of snow].”
Committee chairman Seán Hogan said he had asked county councils in snow-affected areas to have their local co-ordination centres in operation on Sunday with emergency, Garda, Army, and road maintenance, personnel on standby. Mr Hogan said every county council is equipped with snow-ploughing equipment to deal with anticipated snow.
Experts estimate that between 15,000 to 20,000 tonnes of rock salt will be needed to de-ice roads next week. At present only 6,000 to 7,000 tonnes are guaranteed, the National Roads Authority (NRA) confirmed. It said it was confident a further 4,000 tonnes could be sourced over the weekend. However, that still leaves it with a shortfall of up to 10,000 tonnes, or half of what will be required nationally.
Mr Gormley and Michael Egan of the NRA accepted that even if new supplies were located, it could take several days to import them into the country.
Fine Gael last night said that it was clear the Government has no national plan to respond to a severe weather crisis. The party’s environment spokesman, Phil Hogan, said the Government had promised such a plan but it was evident that none had every been prepared. “We now know why the Government’s response to this weather crisis has been so appallingly poor. They don’t have a plan; it doesn’t exist,” he said.
Labour transport spokesman Tommy Broughan said the Oireachtas committee on transport should investigate at its next meeting what he called the total breakdown in dealing with the crisis.
The NRA said that some local authorities would be asked to conserve salt over the weekend to prioritise de-icing roads during the working week. “It’s too early to say if we are facing a closure situation,” said Mr Egan.
“Whether or not we run out of salt remains to be seen. We openly acknowledge the situation is critical,” he added.
In relation to the status of the response, Mr Gormley insisted the Government was on top of it. He said that it has not been officially declared an emergency.