Dear Councillor,
The water situation as reported this morning was production at 547Mld and demand at 558Mld. This was a continuation of yesterday’s downward trend. Our storage at Stillorgan this morning was at 663Mld. Despite this we will maintain our promise not to have any cut-offs through to the 27th December but we will have pressure reductions over that period.
We expect a fairly quick thaw over the 26th/27th and this will cause serious problems with burst pipes. We will have crews mobilised for Sunday 26th to begin work on this immediately. As advised yesterday we will be reviewing the position with restrictions on the 27th but we will have to return to a more restrictive situation including cut-offs next week. We will of course exclude New Years Eve.
Michael Phillips attended another meeting of the National Emergency Co-ordinating Committee this morning. The weather was far worse yesterday and last night than was forecast and temperatures are very low this morning. It should be dry today but very cold again tonight. Sunday should see rain which may be snow/sleet at first before it turns to rain. Monday and Tuesday will see more rain. Snow and ice may linger in some areas. It should stay above zero from Sunday but on Wednesday the temperatures are likely to drop again for a few days.
Dublin Airport is fully operational this morning. Snow and ice crews worked overnight to clear over 8 inches of snow from approx. 600 acres of airfield in time for the first wave of flight arrivals and departures while temperatures dropped to -10 degrees. Approximately 120,000 tonnes of snow was cleared from the airfield overnight.
The NRA continues to manage overall salt supplies for local authorities. As already advised the situation with salt stocks has stabilised. We are continuing to spread salt in the city as per the map on the website. Conditions are obviously extremely hazardous for driving in the Dublin area given the weather over the last two days. DCC, FCC and SDCC have been helping out on the M50 today.
Footpaths are still a major issue in the city and we had our men out from 6.30am again today. The Army are also assisting. Because of the recurrence of snow and with the imperative of helping people avail of public transport we have had to revisit many of the areas we concentrated on yesterday. This work will cease today; we will reassess on Monday and we will monitor the impact of the thaw at that stage.
Dublin Bus will be running additional buses on Sunday to coincide with the earlier start of the sales and this should be beneficial to business in the city.
The next update will issue on Monday 27th and once again Happy Christmas to you all.
Yours Sincerely,
John Tierney
City Manager
