Andrew Carey
IT WAS a picture that went viral and was described as being published in a “tweet with the most impact of the #StormDarwin trend” on twitter.
But the story behind the crushed white van on the Knocklisheen Road out of Limerick last Wednesday afternoon is as spectacular as the image itself.
He pulled over to help a woman whose car got stuck in a ditch as she avoided a part fallen tree on the road. When Mark had finished he was returning to his white Opel van parked on the side of the road.
A normal course of events you would have thought for a Good Samaritan, but what unfolded after that was nothing short of a miraculous escape from death for the 37-year-old.
Hurricane force winds knocked a second tree during Storm Darwin crushing Mr Quaid’s parked van just yards in front of him.
Mr Quaid, on driving out of Limerick towards Meelick in Co Clare, described the tree lined road and noticing the woman stranded in her car.
“Ya it was a small country road and trees on it, big ones on either side. I saw the lady on the road and as smaller tree had fallen blocking the side of the road. She was trying to pass it and got stuck in the ditch.
“When I went by I said to myself that I had to help her as she had her kids in the car and was stuck”.
He described hearing the trees creaking as he pushed the car from the ditch.
The female driver, having benefited from Mr Quaid’s assistance, left the scene with her three small children and was described as being “very grateful, and she said ‘thank you so much.’ She was happy to get out of there”, he added.
The next minute, the builder from the Ennis Road near Coonagh, said he “turned around and a tree was falling on the van just as I was walking back to it. It totally wrecked it,” he said.
The 37 year old Good Samaritan then left then to get help for himself but on returning his van said that someone had stolen all his tools from the stranded van.
“It was unbelievable,” he said, adding that he was fairly “ticked off over the tools” being stolen.
“I came back and the few handy bits I had in the van, power tools and stuff like that was all taken.”
“That tree crushed it totally, the stuff was whipped and now I have no insurance to cover any of it”.
Speaking the day after the miraculous escape, Mr Quaid said that he received a call hours after the tree falling to notify him that his van was ablaze still pinned by the tree.
Mr Quaid told the Limerick Post that he managed to get a temporary loan of a van to continue with his work.
“Sure you have to do what you can to keep going”, he added.
Meantime, the huge clean up operation around Limerick was again in full swing this Thursday in the wake of Storm Darwin.
The costs of repairs are expected to run into the millions as the tolls are tallied around in the homes and businesses damaged.
Round the clock repairs are being carried out by ESB crews aim to restore power to hundreds of homes in the city and county, however man new faults are being reported even up to 24 hours after the storm raged through the Mid West.
University of Limerick campus at Plassey was fully open and operational despite approximately 60 trees being blown over during the winds that peaked at over 170km/h.
A number of large trees fell in the People’s Park as well as large branches and debris scattering other public parks in the city.
Limerick City Council’s Parks Department has closed all parks and is reviewing the situation on an ongoing basis.
Building repair works are also continuing as efforts are made to asses damage and the structural integrity of stricken buildings including Limerick Boat Club that lost its roof as well as the red brick facade wall over head Sarsfield Pharmacy in the city after a large portion of it crashed onto the footpath below.
