What’s the damage Barra?
Cork City and County Councils have moved into a clean-up operation mode after Storm Barra tore across the country on Tuesday leaving fallen trees, flooding, and electricity and water outages in its wake.
A red alert remained in place in Cork for most of Tuesday as winds ranging from 80-130km per hour battered Cork city and county. Cork City Fire Brigade and ESB crews were extremely busy responding to incidents across the city where at least 12 trees were reported fallen as well as countless power outages.
High tide passed in the city centre on Tuesday morning with flood waters flowing across South Mall from the riverside quays at Morrisons Island. Flood level peaked at 2.68 metres.
In the county, the worst affected area was Bantry with 28 mainly commercial premises taking water with the arrival of high tide on Tuesday morning.
The tide was especially high due to high astronomical tide, storm surcharging and wave action combining to overtop the temporary defences and surcharged the storm system within the town.
While high tide in Bantry was at 6.39am on Tuesday, it remained high for a number of hours due to the storm and wave action. Flooding also occurred on the Back Street in Youghal and has since receded.
There have also been reports of walls knocked and some property, roads, public light and footpath damage across the county.
Over the course of 24 hours, Cork County Fire Service was mobilised 31 times to various incidents, including road hazards, chimney fires, flooding calls, a road traffic collision, a house fire and a medical emergency.
Wind gusts of 156km per hour were recorded at Fastnet Lighthouse on Tuesday, while 113 km per hour gusts were recorded on Sherkin Island.
The R571 between Castletownbere and Eyeries became impassable and was closed with members of the public being asked to avoid unnecessary travel and remain indoors.
As of going to print, 528 homes in Cork county and city were without electricity according to the ESB PowerCheck website. Cork County Council continues to ask motorists, cyclists and pedestrians to exercise extreme caution as there is debris over roads and footpaths right throughout the county and with the clean-up operation expected to take a number of days.
Water supply
Due to high turbidity levels in the water source caused by Storm Barra, a boil water notice was put in place by Irish Water for customers in Newmarket, Kanturk, Meelin, Kilbrin, Castlemagner, Tullylease, Lismire, Knocknagree, Kiskeam, Ballydesmond, Cullen, Boherbue, Dromtariffe and Derrinagree.
Areas currently running on storage that may result in outages as works progress to restore power and treatment capability include areas of Fermoy, Mitchelstown, Conna, Whitegate, Ballycotton, Watergrasshill, Gortnaskethy, Macroney, Kilally, Caherbarnagh and Kilmagner.
Neil Smyth of Irish Water said: “During the storm, repair works are risk assessed and will be carried out as soon as it is safe to do so. The severe weather continues to impact water supply schemes and further updates will be issued as the storm continues.”