Hurricane Ophelia latest: Three victims included former cancer nurse and father-of-two

As the massive recovery operation gets underway this morning, details of the victims are beginning to emerge. 

The first reported death was a female driver in her 50s, who was killed when a tree fell on her car in strong winds near Aglish village in County Waterford.

The Irish Independent has since named her as 58-year-old former oncology nurse Clare O’Neill.

A female passenger, in her 70s, was injured and taken to Waterford Regional Hospital for treatment, police said yesterday. 

Her injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

The Press Association has reported a 31-year-old man, named locally as Michael Pyke, was killed in in Cahir, County Tipperary, in a chainsaw accident while he was trying to clear a tree which had been felled by the hurricane-force winds.  

Father-of-two Fintan Goss, 33, was killed in Ravensdale, Dundalk, when a car he was in was struck by a tree. 

Ireland is facing a huge recovery effort following the storm, which left up to 450,000 homes without power after fierce winds downed power lines and damaged substations. 

Officials from ESB, the Irish electricity board, said yesterday its network could take over a week to fully repair.

And they warned the repair effort following Storm Darwin in 2014, which was less severe than Hurricane Ophelia, took eight days for some areas, despite fewer homes being affected.

Damage to the electricity grid has also had knock-on effects for Ireland’s water supply, with some pumping stations and treatment plants offline completely.

A spokeswoman for Irish Water told radio station RTE this morning potentially 360,000 people were faced with supply issues util the damage is repaired. 

She said generators were being used to power three treatment centres, but another three were completely without power. 

Downing Street said the UK Government is “stood ready to provide any support if requested” after Theresa May spoke with her Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar yesterday.


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