Two killed as Storm Ophelia lashes Ireland, UK

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON

At least two people have been killed in Ireland and thousands of homes were left without power as Storm Ophelia lashed the country on Monday.

A woman was killed when a tree fell on her car due to winds blowing up to 100 mph (161 km/h) in County Waterford, in the southeast.

In a separate incident, a man was killed in a chainsaw accident while he was trying to remove a fallen tree in County Tipperary, Irish police said.

The storm, which arrived as a hurricane in the eastern Atlantic, has battered Ireland and parts of the U.K. leaving more than 360,000 homes in the south of Ireland with no electricity, local media reported.

Ireland’s energy supplier ESB has warned that more outages are expected and that repair operations will take several days.

More than 140 flights from Irish airports were cancelled and all Dublin Bus routes in the capital were shut down, according to local reports. Schools, colleges and some public offices across Ireland remained closed due to warnings.

Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has issued a personal appeal for people to remain indoors, declaring a “national emergency”.

Speaking in Dublin, Varadkar called on people to stay at home, stressing that a red weather warning applied to all cities and counties across Ireland.