Storm Babet continues to cause disruption as weather warnings remain
By Gráinne Ní Aodha and Cillian Sherlock, PA
Storm Babet caused more travel disruption across the country on Friday amid forecasts of further heavy rain.
Forecaster Met Éireann issued a status orange rain warning for counties Dublin and Wicklow until 8am on Saturday.
A status-yellow rain warning for counties Meath and Louth was to lift at midnight on Friday.
A status-yellow rain warning from the UK Met Office was issued for Northern Ireland earlier in the day.
⚠️ Status Orange Rainfall Warning for #Dublin & #Wicklow 🌧️
Spells of heavy rain. ☔️
Possible impacts:
Flooding 🌧️ ⚠️
Dangerous driving conditions 🚗
Poor visibility 👀
View all current warnings here 👇https://t.co/Xg3aMJlyuS pic.twitter.com/VK3rYMuVtM— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) October 20, 2023
Irish Rail warned passengers of weather-related delays to some services on Friday evening while there were reports of spot flooding on roads causing disruption in parts of Dublin.
Earlier, the Minister for Finance said a proposal was being worked on to increase the level of support that will be offered to those affected by this week’s flooding in Co Cork.
Michael McGrath said money will be available through a scheme to be administered by the Red Cross “from next week”.
This currently offers an initial €5,000 and further support of up to €20,000 based on the scale of damage.
Mr McGrath said many businesses in Midleton in Co Cork had their “destroyed” Christmas stock out on the street.
“The assessment of the full scale of the damage to homes and businesses will take some time, but the support will be there and that is the overarching message,” he told RTÉ radio on Friday.
“We do have to ensure, insofar as we can, that all of these businesses that were viable before two days ago can trade into the future.”
Mr McGrath said “there will be a need to go further” because “many” businesses did not have insurance because of previous flooding.
He said a proposal was being worked on by Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney which he expected would offer “an increased level of support” and go to Cabinet next Tuesday.
“The majority of the businesses (in Midleton) are severely damaged or destroyed, so this is on a scale that we haven’t seen in recent times, and so the response will have to be of a different nature and a different magnitude.”
A major clean-up operation is under way to deal with the aftermath of flooding that swamped several towns and villages in the southwest during the week.
Army and civil defence units were deployed to support evacuation measures in Midleton following the storm.
On Friday, residents of the Woodland estate in Midleton were advised to be on “high alert” amid concerns of further flooding and people were told to avoid parts of the town.
