Arctic blast exposes an ill-equipped country

Such a prolonged severe cold spell as is currently being experienced has not been seen in this country since 1963. It does appear to be one of those exceptional extreme weather events that occur every two or three decades - the last one of which was the co-called Big Freeze of January 1982 - and which looks likely to last another week at least. Now into the third week of severe icy conditions, the situation for motorists and isolated rural dwellers has not improved, with many secondary and county roads around Meath being left in extremely dangerous conditions, preventing travel and confining many elderly people, in particular, to their homes since Christmas. Much of the snow and ice on some of these roads hasn't had a chance to thaw at all and simply re-freezes each night, rendering any efforts to treat them virtually useless. However, Meath County Council is not even getting to many of these roads. It says it has been gritting national routes and the heavily trafficked regional roads throughout the county on a daily basis but, in some cases, this gritting is ineffective as the salt needs to go onto the road surfaces before they freeze. With little or no thaw during daylight hours, this means any gritting being carried out is onto already frozen surfaces which cannot break down the compacted snow and ice. In common with other local authorities around the country, Meath County Council is now running low on its rock salt stocks and has had to try to source additional material from Northern Ireland in order to continue its road-gritting programme. The council says it must keep a minimum of 400 tonnes in case of a major snow event but that its stocks are now seriously depleted and will continue to dwindle if the cold snap carries on beyond another week. However, with severe weather warnings still in place and roads remaining in a dangerous condition, surely the time has come to use some imagination in order to try and clear some of the less trafficked routes in Meath which have not been gritted at any stage since the Arctic weather began before Christmas. Outsourcing gritting tasks to third party contractors who have flatbed trucks available must be considered at this stage, leaving county council outdoor staff to concentrate on treating the major routes. Fine Gael's road safety spokesman and local TD Shane McEntee has suggested as much this week as frustration with ineffectual gritting operations around the country continues to build. Emergency funding from Government should without hesitation be made available to allow this to happen until the end of the current cold spell. Schools go back this week and commuters have been returning to work since Monday following the Christmas holidays. School buses may well find it difficult to navigate rural roads, particularly as even more severe frosts are being predicted for later this week with a continuing risk of snow showers over most of the country. Serious decisions need to be taken this week on what to do if complete chaos is to be averted, as traffic volumes will build significantly in the next couple of days. While the local town councils have been keeping the streets of towns like Navan, Trim and Kells relatively clear, the same cannot be said of footpaths which, on a number of occasions in this cold snap, have been more dangerous than roads as rain froze on contact with the ground, creating an instant ice rink for pedestrians to contend with. Navan on Christmas Eve saw the most dangerous conditions ever experienced - testament to this was the fact that up to 60 unfortunate victims of falls ended up being treated in the local hospital for sprains and bone fractures after slipping in the treacherous conditions. Footpaths in towns cannot be ignored in any council treatment programmes when they are icy - either the councils include them or individual shopkeepers and business owners take responsibility for the portion of paths outside their premises and try and keep them clear. This big chill is part of a bigger weather phenomenon gripping the northern hemisphere since late December with freezing conditions gripping everywhere from China through western and central Europe to the US Great Lakes. These severe weather events only occur every couple of decades in Ireland so it would be unreasonable to expect Ireland to be in a constant state of preparedness every winter like Moscow or Stockholm when exceptionally freezing conditions are relatively rare. However, what we should expect is that there is proper planning and co-ordination between Government and local authorities when a severe cold snap is predicted and that whatever funding is necessary to ensure councils have sufficient supplies of tock salt to clear roads is made available. Even though it appears local authorities were warned last November by the Dept of Transport to prepare for harsh weather conditions in December, the severity and prolonged nature of the cold conditions has caught everyone off-guard. Hopefully, with new salt shipments from Spain arriving this week, all councils will be able to ensure they have access to sufficient quantities to continue gritting operations. However, they - and everyone else - will be hoping that the weather itself turns a little bit more benign next week to allow normal life to resume.