Thankfully, ex-hurricane Ophelia came and went in the northwest reasonably quietly.

We were all prepared for the worst.

Everything was either tied down, strapped down or put inside. We were all sitting with the torches and the candles at the ready. It turned out to be a rare opportunity to sit inside and spend an afternoon with the family.

The piles of chips were covered in small birds all flat out eating stones

There were, of course, some very strong winds, but thankfully, there was no real serious harm done around here.

Last Sunday night was most definitely the calm before the storm. Any of you, who like myself, were out gathering up anything you thought could have been a potential missile, would have noticed the absolute calm.

Unfortunately, the rest of the country was not as lucky as ourselves and we must take time to remember the people who lost their lives during the storm.

It’s funny how nature and wildlife have their own coping mechanisms and survival instinct during a storm.

I was taking to Ciaran Dowd from Donegal County Council on Monday morning before the storm.

He was sitting looking out his office window in the council depot at the large piles of stone chips. The piles of chips were covered in small birds all flat out eating stones.

Why?

To make themselves heavier of course, in the hope that they would not get blown away.

How do they know what’s coming? It is quite amazing, but nature’s weather forecast always seems much better than ours!

Another thing that became quite evident after the storm was how it is just impossible to please the public.

As the saying goes, you can’t please all the people all of the time.

I thought the Government and all offices and departments involved handled the whole event well.

We were all warned well in advance of the event and although the red weather warning put in place may have been slightly over the top for the weather we experienced locally, it was spot on for most people further south.

In such situations, I believe that always better safe than sorry.

School’s out for winter

A lot of people were complaining about the schools being closed on Tuesday. I’m sure that most schools in Donegal could have opened easily, but the school in Cork that had part of its roof blown off may not have been in the same situation.

Where do you draw the line?

Leaving it up to the principal of each individual school puts a lot of pressure on one person. I think the correct decision was made, one day is neither here nor there, especially when it comes to child safety.

Better people complaining about schools being closed than people complaining they should have been closed after a child was injured.

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