Community centres in rural Waterford are set to serve as Severe Weather Community Support Hubs.
These hubs will offer supports such as electricity, showers and kitchen areas to rural communities during sever weather events.
Director of Services for Roads, Water and Environment in Waterford, Gabriel Hynes, announced the plan during the November Plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Hynes said: “The Department of Rural and Community Development will launch an initiative which will provide each local authority with a number of generators for severe weather events”.
“The plan would be that those generators would be stored centrally by the local authority. We would deploy them during a severe weather event to a community when there is a power outage. This will allow a community centre in that area to be used as a community hub during the event, where the community would co-ordinate essential services,” he explained.
“That means someone can go and charge their phone, there will be lighting, heating, showers and so on.”
In outlining the steps needed to make this plan operational Mr. Hynes said: “What has to happen is that the community centre has to be wired up to accept a generator”.
“We would do that as a local authority and it would be funded by the Department.”
In response to the announcement, Sinn Féin Councillor Donnchadh Mulcahy, asked: “How rural is rural?” And mentioned potential centres including Tallow and Ballyduff Upper.
To which Mr. Hynes replied: “The community centres you mention would probably fit the match”.
“We’re really looking for centres that can accommodate large numbers, that have a kitchen, they have heating and they have showers. So you can come there and get all those services,” Mr. Hynes added.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
