Weather warnings demand decisive action

Opinion
Edwin McGreal

As a country we are reasonably good at heeding warnings from our weather forecasters.
Teresa Mannion’s famous urgings on RTÉ News in December 2015 during Storm Desmond went viral. “Don’t make unnecessary journeys, don’t take risks on treacherous roads, and don’t swim in the sea,” she said – as the weather threatened to make Teresa herself a victim.
While a few red weather alerts since might have overstated the conditions that actually arrived, making some people complacent, we have generally been a compliant population when it comes to listening to advice about dangerous weather. Heck, we’ve often cleared all the bread from the shops in a panic, ready to practically go into hibernation.
But while we have reacted quite well in those situations, how good have we been at medium- and long-term planning for extreme weather?
The answer is that we have been very reactive and not at all proactive.
In this paper, on January 21 last, we highlighted how a worrying report showed large parts of coastal Mayo are at risk of flooding by 2050.
Specifically, considerable parts of Erris, Achill, north and west Mayo are at risk of being below the high tide line in 30 years’ time, according to research carried out by Climate Central, a non-profit science organisation based in New Jersey, US.
The research, which has been published in the journal Nature Communications and in The New York Times, shows that rising seas could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously thought.
It has not taken very long for the dangers to reveal themselves on the ground in Mayo.
Near-continuous storms since have caused considerable flooding along coastal Mayo, as well as in many inland areas of the county.
All the research points to such weather events becoming more frequent, rather than less so. And with rising seas, the issue is a particular concern for those in coastal regions.
But what has been the State’s response?
On the basis of what we have seen so far, not enough. That was brought home in stark terms at last week’s meeting of the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District.

‘Ticking time bomb’
There, Achill-based Cllr Paul McNamara (FF) described coastal erosion as Achill’s ‘ticking time bomb’. In truth he could have been speaking about any part of the Irish coast.
He talked of the dangers of beaches being washed away in Keel and Dooagh on Ireland’s largest island and called for an emergency fund for speedy repairs to flood defences.
He also called for more ‘decisiveness’ at national level to tackle the impact of ever increasing storms.
Currently, he pointed out, local authorities have to apply for emergency funding for storm damage – funding that might take up to 12 weeks to come through, if it is approved at all.
This, he argued, is of little use when three or four storms could arrive in that time, leaving places ‘beyond repair’ by the time any money comes through.
He said there needed to be a much greater level of ‘urgency and decisiveness’ at national level. Cllr Peter Flynn (FG) concurred.
“The damage climate change can do is becoming abundantly clear. We can close our eyes to it or make critical decisions to counteract it,” he said.
The response from Head of Westport/Belmullet Municipal District, Padraig Walsh, was honest and sobering.
“It is difficult to see a situation where we will be able to protect all of the coastline because of the scale of the cost,” he said.
That is the reality, but what is the Government’s plan for what to do? What ought to be prioritised?
Or will the Government continue to act in an ad-hoc reactive way after each storm instead of planning for a future that is becoming more certain with every storm.
Cllr Peter Flynn said people in the UK and France are being compensated to leave their coastal homes behind and move inland. It is a frightening thought for many coastal dwellers but, at the very least, it is a plan.
What is Ireland’s plan for a very difficult future? To paraphrase Teresa Mannion, this is a very necessary journey and one we cannot shy away from.