Waterford locals react to last week's cold snap

Last week drop in temperature has been the talk of the town, as the cold snap caused considerable snowfall and icy conditions in some parts of the county. Severe conditions last week resulted in public transport disruptions, schools closures and dangerous driving conditions.

While the recent snowy weather caused significant disruption for some, for others, they were able to get on about their week as normal.

To find out how people are coping with the cold, we spoke to locals about their thoughts and experiences:

Student Darragh O’Dempsey said that the icy conditions impacted school:

“It affected us on Monday with the school closure and it affected teachers getting to the schools. Me myself though, I live in town and I walk everywhere, so it was grand for me. I just had to be careful of the ice!"

Meanwhile, John Cotter of the Book Centre said that normal business hours were altered to facilitate staff during the height of the icy conditions:

“The town was a bit quieter during the really bad weather” he said, “and in terms of staff we opened up at ten instead of nine to allow extra time to get in, and some of the staff went home earlier just to be safe. A couple of days we closed at five and other days we stayed open until six.

“It’s a reasonably busy time of year because people still have a little bit of money after Christmas so there was a few more people around than you might expect some days, but it was quieter than usual."

When speaking to others around town, they said that the weather didn’t reach their doorsteps as much as it did in other parts of the county. One local said that he was ‘grateful’ that the conditions were not too bad, mentioning that compared to the ongoing LA fires, we ‘are very lucky’.

Norma Kenneally and Sheila Galvin added: “Thankfully we weren’t really impacted and it was nice to get something different than rain!"