Orange and yellow rain warnings issued for 12 counties as flood risk grows
Ellen O'Donoghue, Sarah Slater and Vivienne Clarke
Dublin City Council is monitoring river levels and coastal conditions closely, to ensure appropriate responses as required. Dublin City Council are in regular contact with the National Emergency Coordination Group on all aspects of recent weather events.
Tidal Warnings prompt Dublin City Council to continue to keep Carparks along coasts at Sandymount and Clontarf closed to protect against possible wave overtopping. The Cycle lane at Clontarf will remain closed as a precautionary measure.
Eden Quay Boardwalk (floodgates) will remain closed as a precautionary measure.
The floodgates along the River Dodder will remain closed until further notice.
In Co Wexford, burst water mains in Kilmore are affecting the village, nearby Bridgetown, Tomhaggart and surrounding areas.
“Works are (expected) to be completed this evening. Pressure should return soon after,” said local Aontú councillor Jim Codd.
Waterford Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane said that financial resources made available for Waterford shows the town and county lags way behind Cork, Limerick, Galway, Kilkenny and many more counties over the last five years.
“Likewise in funding for harbours and piers, where Waterford received the lowest allocation,” added deputy Cullinane.
He highlighted that Waterford ranks 22nd out of 24 counties for Office of Public Works (OPW) major flood relief funding.
Over six years, Waterford received just €240,000 the Sinn Féin TD claims.
Cork received €115 million. Limerick €37m, Galway €13m,. Kilkenny €4m, 17 times more than Waterford.
“This neglect is unacceptable. Waterford deserves fair funding and real flood protection.”
Figures provided by Cullinane show the total flood relief project expenditure by county from 2020 to 2025, ranked highest to lowest.
Cork at €114.6 million, Limerick €37.4 million, Dublin €31.4 million, Westmeath €26.6 million, Kildare €23.3 million, Tipperary €16.4 million, Galway €13.3 million, Mayo €12.3 million, Clare €10.5 million, Meath €11.1 million, Donegal €7.8 million, Kerry €7.5 million, Louth €6.9 million, Roscommon €6.8 million, Wicklow €4.7 million, Wexford €4.5 million, Laois €4.1 million, Kilkenny €4 million, Leitrim €3 million, Cavan €1.2 million, Offaly €1 million, Waterford €0.24 million, Sligo €0.2 million and Carlow €0.02 million.
Co Waterford is currently under a status orange rain warning, with the same warning coming into place for Wexford and Dublin at 12pm, as a yellow rain warning has been issued for a further nine counties.
It comes as the country, particularly the south east, has been battered by extensive rain over the last week.
Waterford is currently under a status orange rain warning, while the warning will be in place in Dublin and Wicklow from 12pm.
The warning expires in Wexford at 9am on Friday, while the warning for Dublin and Wexford will expire at 12pm on Friday.
Met Éireann has warned that very heavy rain falling on already saturated ground, combined with high river levels and high tides will lead to localised flooding, river flooding, and difficult travel conditions.
Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Wexford and Tipperary are all currently under a status yellow rain warning until 9am on Friday, while Cavan, Monaghan and Louth will fall under the warning from 12 pm today until 12 pm on Friday.
The heavy rain forecast for Thursday follows a brief respite from wet conditions on Wednesday. However, many rivers remain close to or above bank-full after last week’s rain, Met Éireann said.
This has left catchments “highly sensitive” to any additional rainfall, it said.
Separately, it said high spring tides over the coming days, combined with strong onshore winds and storm surge, would increase the risk of wave overtopping and coastal flooding in exposed areas.
The National Emergency Co-ordination Group met on Wednesday and warned of “another challenging phase”.
Local authority teams have been deploying sandbags, clearing drains and carrying out other flood prevention works.
The Government has offered financial support for homes and businesses affected by recent flooding.
Following recent rainfall, many rivers are at or above bank-full levels.
Meanwhile, strong onshore winds and storm surge will increase the risk of wave overtopping and coastal flooding.
Senior forecaster with Met Éireann, Gerry Murphy, has warned “it is going to be a very, very wet day” with rain continuing to fall until mid-afternoon on Friday.
“This is going to be a lot of consistent, persistent rain," he added, but the rain will arrive more slowly than anticipated.
Speaking on both Newstalk Breakfast and RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Murphy also cautioned that the rain, particularly in the Dublin mountains, is going to have a “knock-on” effect at lower levels in areas such as Shankill and Rathfarnham and other parts of South County Dublin.
This weather regime is going to continue, today, tomorrow, over the weekend, with a further band next week, he added.
"Once this rain does get started this morning, it's actually going to continue right the way through the rest of the day, overnight and through tomorrow morning as well. So there's going to be rain where basically it's just going to continue raining from once it starts mid-morning and then basically it's just rain, rain until maybe mid-afternoon tomorrow," Murphy said.
“As has been well documented at this stage, the river levels are very high, the tides are high, the ground is saturated, so moderate amounts of rainfall can and probably will cause flooding in some places, but this is actually going to be a very wet day."
Rainfall in the Wicklow Mountains will have the effect of “activating some very responsive rivers and streams in the mountains, which then will have a knock-on effect as it flows down to lower levels," according to Murphy.
"But it does look like those heavier, those more significant high rainfall totals will also encroach into the Dublin mountains and parts of South Dublin.
Rainfall for January and the start of February has been well above average for the south and east of the country, "so it doesn't take much to tip into a flooding scenario".
