Updated 9.28pm
PEOPLE LIVING IN towns along the south and west coasts have been warned that extreme conditions may cause damage and flooding in the wake of Storm Eleanor last night.
Met Éireann has forecast heavy showers in the south-west and west bringing “the risk of further flooding and also rain possibly turning to sleet over higher ground”.
A Status Yellow wind warning will come into effect for Munster, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow from 3am into 1pm tomorrow.
It will bring gusts of up to 100km/h, but the winds will not be as severe as yesterday.
Storm Eleanor blew through the country last night, with strong winds of up to 155 km/h and heavy rainfall.
Galway city was left with a massive clean up operation in the wake of the storm, after the city flooded due to the extreme weather and high tides.
As well as this, tens of thousands of homes were left without power but the majority have this restored by this evening.
A status orange wind warning for counties along the west and south coasts expired at 2pm this afternoon, but there have been warnings that further flooding could be likely.
Both Galway and Cork city councils issued warnings that flooding could occur this evening, but conditions similar to last night failed to materialise.
The National Emergency Coordination Group on severe weather convened this morning to assess the situation in the wake of Eleanor and to review the weather ahead.
Speaking this morning on RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke, chairman of the NECG Sean Hogan advised caution and said more disruptive weather could be on the way.
“There are unfortunately still some threats coming towards us,” said Hogan.
“Two separate wind episodes which allied with the high tides – and we are in a period of extreme high tides at the moment – pose a real threat to towns along the south and west coasts.
Hogan advised people in these towns to exercise caution.
“Whether it will transpire as the exact same situation as Galway and do the same damage we hope not but that potential exists on the south and west coasts,” he said.
Met Éireann’s latest forecast said that stormy and windy conditions will persist throughout the afternoon.
“Extremely windy early this afternoon with stormy conditions in parts of the west,” the weather service said.
There’ll be sunny spells and squally heavy showers, some thundery downpours occurring too, with the risk of local flooding especially over Connacht and Ulster.
Winds are due to moderate later this afternoon and evening.
Clean up
ESB said that of the roughly 150,000 customers who lost their electricity supply during the storm, power had been restored to over 140,000.
As of 5pm today, 2,000 customers who lost supply during the storm are still without power.
As well as this, 4,500 customers who lost supply this morning due to lightning and high winds are still without power this evening.
“ESB Networks teams from less impacted areas of the country have travelled and are deploying to help their colleagues in the worst impacted areas,” a spokesperson said.
With high winds and rain forecast again for tomorrow, further outages can be expected and we wish to remind members of the public to remain alert to damage to the electricity network.
People are advised to check the PowerChecker service for the latest updates on outages, to log any outages here, and to never touch or approach fallen or damaged wires.
A spokesperson said power was expected to be restored to all but small pockets of affected customers by tonight.
Galway flooding
Business owners and residents in Galway city have criticised government for the widespread flooding yesterday, saying that sufficient defences weren’t in place.
Responding to questions from reporters today, housing, planning and local government minister Eoghan Murphy said that there had been adequate preparations in place.
“There was adequate preparation and planning in place but every time we have an event like this we learn lessons,” he said.
“We have very sophisticated modelling techniques to look at different storm events as they come in. But we can’t predict all the vagaries of weather and sometimes things will happen that weren’t predicted in the models.
“But warning were given to local authorities… and it’s for the local authorities then to work on the warning they are given.
Sometimes though we won’t be able to predict everything that will happen and very unfortunately a number of business have been hit in Galway but we are there now with the supports in place to help those businesses get back up and running.
With reporting from Sean Murray
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