Further heavy snow falls this weekend could put authorities under huge strain to keep the country’s major roads open, the body co-ordinating the national response to the extreme weather conditions has warned.
The National Emergency Response Committee, involving over 40 agencies, met in Dublin this morning to discuss the continuing sub-zero conditions; the prospect of further prolonged snow falls this weekend; and falling supplies of rock salt, vital for de-icing the country’s major roads.
At a press conference in Dublin this afternoon, the Minister for the Environment John Gormley and senior figures from other key agencies involved in the response said that the combination of heavy snows and quickly depleting supplies of rock salt and grit placed the country at “danger” and “at risk in the short term”.
Supplies of salt are at critically low levels and are not sufficient to keep priority roads de-iced next week, when the Arctic spell of weather is set to continue.
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 this week, and the ground temperatures were sub-zero down to a depth of 30cm.
He said that created a problem whereby even if the weather became milder, 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 south east 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],” said Mr Fleming.
Arising from the briefing on the weather forecast, the committee asked all county councils in the South East and East to have their local co-ordination centres in operation on Sunday with emergency, Garda, Army, and road maintenance personnel on standby.
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 confirmed. It said it confident it will source up to a further 4,000 tonnes 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.
Yesterday, Mr Gormley and Michael Egan of the NRA accepted that even if new supplies were identified, it could take several days to import them into the country.
In the meantime, local authorities are exploring alternative methods of de-icing including the use of commercial salt (Dublin City Council has acquired 200 tonnes) for footpaths; mixing salt and grit; and the possible use of other de-icers including calcium chloride pellets.
Both said it was too early to say if priority roads (including national roads) would have to be closed but neither ruled out the possibility. Mr Egan said that some local authorities would conserve salt over the weekend to priorities 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, though the local and national emergency response plans have been pressed into action. He said that it was not just about roads but about health issues and schools.
He said that up to 1,000 fractures had been reported in Cork alone and that 80 per cent of schools were closed. That came ahead of the announcement of the Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe that all schools should close for three days next week.