Ophelia to pose life-threatening dangers today

The whole country is this morning being warned to be braced for potentially life-threatening conditions, with a myriad of dangers including flying debris, surging seas, flooding, fallen trees, and downed but live electricity wires.

The devastating effects of Hurricane Ophelia had initially been expected to impact predominantly on eight coastal counties after it reached land at 6am this morning. Status Red warnings were put in place for Cork, Kerry, Clare, Limerick, Waterford, Wexford, Galway, and Limerick due to the storm-force winds, very high seas, and storm surges.

However, the level orange warning for the rest of the country was updated to red at 8pm last night.