Heavy flooding hits Dublin and Kerry

Anne Lucey

Parts of Dublin and Kerry were hit with severe flooding on Tuesday.

In Killarney  a huge thunderstorm and heavy rainfall this afternoon has resulted in heavy flooding and power outages in Killarney - the third Kerry town to experience major floods in the past days.

The skies opened at around 4pm and the heavy rain saw jaunting cars, tourists and a huge number of visitors in Killarney for the citizenship ceremony run for shelter.

Parts of Dublin experienced severe flooding after a sudden downpour of rain just before 12pm.

Large parts of Dublin 12 and Dublin 8 were affected by spot flooding and a number of manholes burst open.

Motorists have been warned there will be poor visibility with further downpours expected throughout the day.

#killarney pic.twitter.com/qlBpZob06W

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Dublin City Council said their teams were in the Crumlin area where an “extremely intense” 12mm of rain fell within a five-minute period.

In Killarney, several roads flooded and cars became stuck including underneath the main railway bridge on the Park Road which became impassable.

Train services stopped as signalling systems were affected..

Other flooding occurred in the Countess Road, as well as the Muckross Road, Flesk bridge, Loretto Cross and Abbey cross areas of the N71.

A house fire in the Park Road may have been due to lightning strike though this has not been confirmed.

Listowel also experienced heavy flooding with a number of premises closing. The Civil defence was assisting in Listowel along with emergency services while fire crews and council crews were at a number of locations in Killarney.

Around two thousand homes and premises were without power, mostly in the Killarney area. Water supply was also affected.

Kerry has experienced severe flooding since Saturday, with much of Tralee town centre engulfed after heavy rainfall on Saturday afternoon.

There are calls for an upgrade of drain water systems to help Kerry cope with what is feared is the result of climate change.