UPDATE- Latest update on county's roads
4.30pm
According to Meath County Council's latest statement the following roads are now passable with extreme care:
N2 – fully open but just one lane north of Collon
N1 – Navan – Dunshaughlin - Dublin
N51
N52 – one lane in parts
R154 Trim to Dublin
R158 Trim – Summerhill - Kilcock
R162 Navan – Nobber - Kingscourt
R164 Kells to Athboy
R152 Duleek to Drogheda
R132 Duleek to Julianstown
R150 Julianstown to Mornington
Continuing to work on the R156 Trim to Ballivor
Salting of cleared roads is underway and the priority is to get as much done as possible in the next few hours. Another salting run is planned for 4am on treated roads.
Many local roads are still impassable and motorists are asked not to undertake necessary journeys.
Meath Fire Service and the Council’s Civil Defence crews are on standby to provide emergency assistance, if required.
At 4pm Met Éireann issued another Severe Weather Warning : Code Level Red for County Meath.
Snow accumulations continuing to increase significantly.
4pm
The treacherous conditions will continue to impact HSE Community Care over the weekend, although staff are doing their utmost to keep essential services running.
The HSE is continuing to monitor the situation and will be doing so over the weekend.
The service thanked the public for their support and understanding.
All non essential clinics and appointments were cancelled across the area on Thursday and Friday in line with the national red alert status weather warning.
Tremendous efforts are being made to ensure that some public health nurses and home support visits go ahead, however it may not be possible to make every call they would like to.
The HSE thanked staff who have been working over the past few days, and also thank the other agencies who have enabled them to make it to the most vulnerable including local authorities ,the Gardai, the Defence Forces and the Voluntary Emergency Services.
Chief Officer for Midlands Louth Meath Mr Pat Bennett in a special tribute to staff described their response as “well above the call of duty in many cases”.
“Many member of staff in exceptional difficult circumstances have come in to work early and slept on sites to ensure that that patients and clients were looked after while public health nurses and care support staff have left no stone unturned in getting to assist vulnerable people in the community” he said.
3.30pm Irish Water is urging consumers in the north east to conserve water with supplies under pressure in areas of Louth and Meath due to increased demand and treatment plant issues.
Irish Water is advising customers in Co Louth and Co Meath that due to the extremely cold weather conditions and exceptionally high water demand, some water treatment plants in the county are struggling to keep up with supply demands.
Customers are being asked to conserve water to avoid reservoirs emptying and water pressure to homes and businesses being affected.
In Navan, production at the Kilcarn water treatment plant has ceased due to a continuing power outage issue.
Power has been restored to the Staleen Water Treatment Plant but customers in Ratoath are expected to have supply disruptions until tomorrow morning. Storage reservoir levels supplying this area are at critically low levels.
Customers throughout the counties are urged to conserve water by not running taps unnecessarily, taking showers instead of baths and to refrain from using dishwashers and washing machines.
Irish Water working in partnership with Louth and Meath County Councils would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience this is causing and assures customers that repairs will be completed as soon as it is safe to do so once the current red alert has been lifted.
Once further information is available we will issue another update. Updates will also be posted to the supply and service section of Irish Water’s website at www.water.ie/water-supply/supply-and-service-update/
Navan Fire Service clearing the paths earlier today
N51
R154 Trim to Dublin
R152 Duleek to Drogheda
R132 Duleek to Julianstown
R150 Julianstown to Mornington
Work is continuing to clear the N2 and regional roads, and to clear towns and roads out of towns.
A power outage has been reported in Kilmessan
Meath Co. Council’s Civil Defence crews are on standby to provide assistance, if required.
1pm IRISH WATER
While power has been restored to the Staleen Water Treatment Plant which supplies customers in Drogheda and East Meath, some customers may not have full pressure or service until late this evening as the water is restored to all parts of the system.
Throughout the cold weather Irish Water is urging customers to conserve water by not running taps, taking showers instead of baths and to refrain from using dishwashers and washing machines.
11am The latest statement from Meath County Council confirms that crews are back out with snow ploughs to clear main roads, linkages to towns and to motorways.
Several roads are impassable across the county including routes around Ashbourne, Dunboyne, Kells, Trim. Gritting of routes will start as soon as heavy snow is cleared.
Power outages have been reported in some areas including Navan Slane, Duleek, Julianstown.
There is some disruption to water supply and water caretakers mobilised to affected areas from early morning.
The Staleen plant is operational following an earlier power outage.
The crisis management team reviewing the situation this morning and throughout the day.
Please heed red alert warning in place until 6pm
10am
The warning to stay indoors has been lifted but roads remain treacherous with drifts of several feet in places making many roads impassable.
Storm Emma battered Meath last night with blizzard conditions, strong winds and heavy snowfalls throughout the night. The red weather alert remains in place until 6pm this evening.
Civil Defence and Meath River Rescue volunteers spent yesterday helping transport hospital staff to work in Navan and also Dublin and Louth as well as bringing carers to seriously ill patients. Yesterday evening they assisted in bringing a sick child to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda. They also assisted with deliveries for Meals on Wheels.
There have been power outages around the county including a second major one in Navan during the night affecting more than 2,000 homes. Other areas affected include Bettystown, Duleek, Bellewstown Julianstown, Longwood. Smaller outages have affected homes in Castletown, Slane, and Wilkinstown.
AA Roadwatch are reporting that routes around Ashbourne and Dunboyne are impassable and conditions are also poor in Kells.