The devastation caused by Storm Chandra across the country is shocking but not surprising given a lack of flood preparedness from government, according to Social Democrats environment spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore.<\/p>\n
Deputy Whitmore said:<\/p>\n
\u201cStorm Chandra has caused devastation across the country, with flooding in Wexford, Wicklow and parts of Dublin being particularly bad. Thousands of homes and businesses remain without power and there has been commuter and traffic chaos.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarlier today the N11 came to a complete standstill, while there was chaos on the M50 and rail services and flights were disrupted.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s storm has again highlighted the State\u2019s lack of preparedness for extreme weather \u2013 which is going to increase in frequency as the climate crisis deepens.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlood defence projects, across the country, are hugely delayed while there is no publicly available national early warning system for floods.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, blocked and overwhelmed drains, and traffic gridlock on choked roads, can combine to effectively bring motorways and national primary roads to a standstill.<\/p>\n
\u201cA year on from Storm \u00c9owyn, it is clear the government has not learned the lessons of that major weather event with families, businesses and commuters bearing the brunt of its inaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cExtreme weather is a phenomenon that the country must learn to grapple with \u2013 but we need a proactive government to move ahead with extreme mitigation plans, rather than just narrate the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people today felt they were taken unawares by the strength of Storm Chandra so, at the very minimum, we need better ways of alerting people to danger, flooding and damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government must also perform an audit of high-risk areas to examine and detail any infrastructural deficits, before moving quickly to address them.\u201d<\/p>\n
January 27th, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The devastation caused by Storm Chandra across the country is shocking but not surprising given a lack of flood preparedness from government, according to Social Democrats environment spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore. Deputy Whitmore said: \u201cStorm Chandra has caused devastation across the country, with flooding in Wexford, Wicklow and parts of Dublin being particularly bad. Thousands of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[405,727,789,268,7,662,659],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-environment","category-infrastructure","category-jennifer-whitmore","category-press-release","category-storm","category-storm-damage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n