Cork town reels after ‘absolutely devastating’ flooding as further heavy rain forecast

A day after Storm Babet caused severe flooding in Cork and other parts of Ireland, a clean-up operation was under way on Thursday. Motorists have been urged to continue to drive with care after more than a month’s worth of rain fell in just 24 hours.

Several roads in the south and southeast remained unpassable earlier as local authorities and emergency services continued to assess the flood damage.

Key points

• The clean-up continues in Midleton and other affected areas, including Midleton, Glanmire, Riverstown, Whitegate, Castlemartyr, Killeagh, Raffeen, Glandore, Ringaskiddy and Cloyne. Cork County Council urged motorists to drive with care.
• A yellow warning remains in place for Limerick, Cork and Kerry this evening, with possible further localised flooding.
• There is no cap on the Government funding to help those impacted by flooding in the wake of Storm Babet, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said on a visit to Midleton.
• Fine Gael councillor for Midleton Susan McCarthy has said the Office of Public Works (OPW) “needs to pull the finger out” and implement the flood-relief scheme that the east Cork town has been awaiting since 2015.

Top reads

• Why was the Storm Babet flooding so bad? Noel Baker examines the factors at play.
• In pictures: The clean-up begins
• ‘It’s like a hurricane came into the shop’: Midleton retailers count the cost of floods
• ‘Help is on the way’, Varadkar tells flood-affected Midleton traders

Well on that note, that is it for our live blog tonight. Thanks for joining us and be sure to follow our ongoing coverage of Storm Babet tomorrow.

Patrick O’Donovan, Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, has told RTE’s Primetime that the OPW require planning permission to progress flood defences in Midleton.

He said officials met on the issue last week and that on the scale of things, this was probably one of the largest flood events experienced in the area.

Even when there is a design for a flood relief scheme, he said, there is no guarantee that people will not object to it.

Doing away with environmental regulations, he added, was not something people want, and listed several environmental factors that must be taken into account. Agreement was reached to provide a Midleton scheme in 2015.

In Scotland a woman has died after being swept into a river in Angus, amid the beginning of an evacuation of 400 homes in the region, PA has reported.

Amid warnings conditions caused by Storm Babet are to deteriorate overnight, police found the body of a 57-year-old woman at 4pm on Thursday, around two hours after receiving a call saying someone had been swept into the Water of Lee at Glen Esk.

The region is subject to a severe flood warning from Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), and was battered by heavy rain from 8am on Thursday.

The fire service and coastguard expected to begin evacuating 400 homes in Brechin before the first of the flooding was predicted from 9pm.

Meanwhile, it is beginning to look a little alarming again in Midleton where, according to RTE, the rain has started to fall again (in line with forecasting). And the council is distributing sandbags. The Cork communities will be bracing themselves for more unwelcome conditions overnight.

The scale of business loss is difficult to fathom. A Midleton GP lists his: four fridges, a US machine, four electronic couches, an air conditioning unit, two televisions – all one trailer load. Then there is all the IT and other equipment.

“Today, what I skipped will cost me €94,000. That’s before we rebuild. Or count lost income,” he posted on Twitter (X).

This property damage and content loss is boiling over into anger. Insurance cover, or rather its lack of availability, is a major issue in Midelton and other areas where flooding continues to happen.

One social media responder said he hoped the insurance company would come through for him, given the scale of the property damage.

“Unfortunately, much of Midleton is excluded from flood damage with insurance companies,” the GP replied, although he did not specifically say he was without cover.

Earlier, in footage posted by Red FM, a business owner told Taoiseach Leo Varakar that the proposed Government financial supports would not cut it.

“We’re not insured; €5,000 is going to go nowhere,” she told him. “I’m talking €100,000 right now for my business alone.”

Earlier, in a statement to The Irish Times, Insurance Ireland, the umbrella company representing the industry, said that when flooding events become inevitable, insurance cover is not an option and it is withdrawn.

Here is an updated storm model from Met Eireann.

And here is what the storm has brought to Scotland - a foam tsunami.

We know there is more rain in store for Munster tonight but spare a thought, too, for the UK.

Its Met Office has issued a red severe weather warning, for “exceptional rainfall and impactful wind”, lasting into midday on Friday.

“Eastern parts of Scotland will see exceptional amounts of rainfall over the next few days and the significant accumulations are likely to cause considerable impacts from Storm Babet,” said its chief meteorologist Jason Kelly.

Red-warning areas will see accumulations of rainfall from 100 to 150mm, with some locations possibly seeing 200 to 220mm.

Scotland is braced for a risk of more significant community scale property flooding – and there will be danger to life, it said.

And in yet another case of “community comes good in the face of adversity”, here’s that story about the noble sacrifice of Sarsfield GAA Club in Cork.

Faced with an onrush of water, it took the selfless decision to open its floodgates, allowing it all in just to protect a nearby housing estate.

A statement on its Facebook page praised the heroism of the pitch committee and volunteers whose quick thinking and action meant the main pitch “essentially became a flood plain in order to relieve the flooding to the immediate Riverstown area, Orchard Manor and surrounding businesses”.

PA reported that the club, which won a county championship last Sunday, added: “We won a county, lost a pitch but hopefully saved a part of the Glanmire community.”

Tanaiste and Corkman Micheál Martin wasted no time in pledging government support in helping it recover from the damage.

“That’s the kind of intervention that makes a huge difference to a community, quick decision-making and we applaud that action,” he told the Dail.

Hello everybody,

Mark Hilliard here taking over from Emmet Malone in bringing you all the updates on Cork flooding.

More rain expected and risk of further flooding in Cork this evening

A reminder that here is a status yellow rain warning in place for Limerick, Cork and Kerry this evening with a suggestion that there could be additional instances of localised flooding.

Here’s what the weather people say: “Heavy bursts of rain or showers overnight and Friday morning coupled with waterlogged soils and high river levels is likely to lead to:• Further localised flooding• Dangerous travelling conditions.”

Earlier, senior meteorologist with Met Éireann, Eoin Sherlock acknowledged that the methods by which they categorise extreme weather situations will have to change because of climate change. Future weather warnings will be about what the weather will do rather than what the weather will be, he said.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr Sherlock explained that the current coloured alert categories were based on the “last round” of climate averages which dates from 1991 to 2020.

“What we do every 30 years, we look at the climate every 10 years, we look at the climate averages. And what that means is we look at what’s happened over the last 30 years. So that’s 1991 to 2020. And then we do some analysis. The layers of red warning would probably correspond to a one or two per cent, you know, the highest one or two per cent of the rainfall amount, an orange warning that would be probably the 95th percentile. So that’s what we do.”

Mr Sherlock said there was no doubt the climate had changed, that the evidence was unequivocal. “We’ve got warmer, the temperatures increased by point seven degrees since the last round of climate averages in the last 10 years, we can expect more extreme rainfall because the temperature has increased”.

“So what we’re doing now is we’re looking at the kind of the threshold that we have for the warnings, we are going to change them as a reflection of what’s happening in the climate.”

Mr Sherlock gave the example that yellow wind warnings of 50 kilometres would change to 55 kilometres per hour.

He pointed out Met Éireann had warned about flooding and difficult driving conditions which was a trend in the meteorological world.

Roads still dangerous in many places due to flooding, warns council

Cork County Council is urging motorists to continue to drive with particular care on roads impacted by the flooding caused by heavy rain yesterday.

“Considering the volume of rainfall together with ongoing forecasted conditions, saturated land, and high river and stream levels, Cork County Council continues to ask all road users to exercise extreme caution. The full extent of the damage is impossible to assess at this time,” said on social media.

“Please avoid driving through flowing or standing water, exercise extreme caution and be especially conscious of vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians. Council crews and contractors continue to assist road users, homes and businesses.”

‘No guarantee’ planning application for Midleton flood defences will be lodged next year, says Minister

A planning application in relation to the flood defences proposed for Midleton several years ago could be lodged with An Bord Pleanála in early 2024 but there are “no guarantees,” Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Patrick O’Donovan has said.

“We have to apply for planning permission. And before we apply for planning permission, we have to go through rigorous consultation and that public consultation only completed last year and so the environmental impact assessment on the preferred option is being completed at the moment,” he said on RTÉ Radio’s Drivetime programme.

“I would hope that a planning application would be able to be lodged to An Bord Pleanála in the early part of 2024. There is no guarantee however. We’ve seen it in the Blackpool situation, we have seen it in other towns and villages all over the country where when we have kind of permission or we seek planning permission, somebody who’s not connected to the area comes up and objects. That is invariably what happens.

“So I’m not going to put a time frame other than we are working with Cork County Council, the county council senior engineer to have the preferred option which has now the environmental impact assessment report being completed at the moment being in a planning process in 2024.”

Pressed on how the scheme could take so long to deliver, Mr O’Donovan said: “We can’t legislate for people that will object and people that will have varying differences of opinions. There’s multiple landowners, there’s multiple stakeholders. There’s a lot of environmental constraints. I know that that might sound to you like that it’s not fast enough.”

[ In pictures: The clean-up begins in Midleton after Storm Babet ]

Asked about comments from Micheál Martin earlier on Thursday when the Tánaiste suggested there needed to be a wider conversation about the issue of planning in relation to such infrastructure, Mr O’Donovan said “our climate is changing at a rate that none of us ever expected”.

“We need to have a conversation in Ireland around climate adaptation, the engineering works required in our rivers and streams and in our estuaries to make sure the people behind them are protected.”

He suggested the new Planning Act might limit the ability of people to take judicial reviews in relation to such planning decisions but even then a number of EU Directives, particularly those relating to habitats, would continue to act as a restraint.

Financial support for those impacted by floods not capped at €10 million, says Taoiseach

There is no cap on the Government funding to help those impacted by flooding in the wake of Storm Babet, the Taoiseach has said on a visit to Midleton.

“I can’t say at this stage (how much the financial package will cost). There is an initial allocation of €10 million to help families and businesses and clubs and voluntary organisations too. But it is not capped at €10 million. That is just the initial allocation that has been made,” said Leo Varadkar on Thursday afternoon.

“What I have asked the council to do is to really carry out an assessment of the damage. The public infrastructure, in particular; the roads and the bridges, send it in to us and we will make a special allocation. We have done that in the past.

“I have heard mixed reports about (previous food relief schemes). I have met people who didn’t apply for the schemes. I have met people who say the schemes have worked well for them and others who found it too cumbersome with too many texts and too many forms to fill in. It has improved over the years and will improve again.

“There is an initial grant of €5,000 to get people going and then a higher grant of €20,000 after that. But I think we will have to increase that as the level of damage to some of the stock here, particularly people who brought stock in for Christmas, is very high. But there do have to be checks and balances.”

He said it wouldn’t be a case of politicians turning up to show solidarity and then disappearing and leaving struggling towns to recover.

“The Government is here to help,” he said. “We understand how severely affected large parts of Waterford and Cork and other parts of the south coast have been. We are not just here to express solidarity. We are here to say that the emergency services and the public services are here for the immediate clean up and then in the medium term we will put the financial aid in place so the families and businesses can recover and the infrastructure is fully repaired.”

Read the full story from Olivia Kelleher here.

Transport continues to be disrupted in parts of Cork due to flooding (revisited)

Back to this as some slightly mixed messages, it seems, from Iarnród Éireann.

Bus Éireann has said some of its Cork City and regional services are still being impacted by the flooding with Glanmire among the areas affected. Full details are on their website here.

Iarnród Éireann, in its latest social media posting has said that “due to flooding damage, services between Glounthaune and Midleton are suspended until further notice. Bus connection remains in place Glounthaune-Midleton until further notice”.

Cork County Council, meanwhile, says “numerous parts of the county’s road network have been severely affected with many roads remaining closed to traffic. The N25 at Castlemartyr is still impassable to traffic with diversion routes via Tallow, Conna, Rathcormac, Dunkettle. Additional updates on affected roads are available on Cork County Alerts.”

Work on restoration of essential services continuing in Cork, says council

Cork County Council says work is continuing on the restoration of essential services in the areas most severely impacted by Storm Babet but that further rain that has been forecast may lead to additional instances of local flooding over the next 24 hours.

The council says its staff are working closely with emergency services and local communities to address issues including “flooding, road closures, and infrastructure damage”.

“Numerous parts of the county’s road network have been severely affected with many roads remaining closed to traffic. The N25 at Castlemartyr is still impassable to traffic with diversion routes via Tallow, Conna, Rathcormac, Dunkettle. Additional updates on affected roads are available on Cork County Alerts,” it says.

Efforts, it says “are concentrated on restoring essential services, securing affected areas, and supporting residents and businesses who have been impacted by the severe weather”.

The has also involved members of the Fire Service, An Garda Siochana, The Defence Forces, Civil Defence, HSE and Coast Guard as well as “numerous other NGOs such as the Irish Red Cross and multiple volunteers”.

The Council said it responded to 57 calls for assistance between 5pm yesterday and 9am this morning. It is offering free disposal of flood damaged goods at Civic Amenity Sites until Thursday October, 26th.

The council’s full update is accessible here.

Support from Government would be welcome, says Midleton shop manager, but ‘community confident we will get through this’

Help from a Government backed humanitarian fund would be warmly welcomed in the town but that the local community is “very strong” with people “hopeful and confident” they will come through the flooding crisis, Therese Savage, manager of Midleton’s Hyde Children’s Fashions, has told Irish Times reporter Olivia Kelleher.

“Hopefully, there is a humanitarian fund that is going to be in place. That has been spoken about. So obviously we will investigate all the opportunities,” she said.

“In sixty years of trading we have never had a flood down this end of the town. It is hard to believe. It is a home as well as a business so there is a lot of sentiment attached.

“We celebrated our 60th anniversary this year. So we could never have imagined that this would have happened. There are so many homes and families that have been seriously impacted.”

The shop supplies uniforms to 22 schools in the county. Ms Savage said that they have reached out to those impacted by the storm.

“We have reached out to the schools because so many homes and families have been seriously impacted. And we want them to know that while we can’t trade at the moment if they need anything or there is an urgency in relation to school uniforms and clothing we will be available.

“We are a very strong community in Midleton and very community minded so we are looking at the bigger picture. We are very hopeful and confident that we will get through this.”

Transport continues to be disrupted in parts of Cork due to flooding

Bus Éireann has said some of its Cork City and regional services are still being impacted by the flooding with Glanmire among the areas affected. Full details are on their website here.

Iarnród Éireann has just reported that its line between Cork and Midleton has reopened.

A number of roads in the Midleton area continue to be flooded, meanwhile, and the Road Safety Authority, has called on, who else but, Teresa Mannion to provide some useful advice to drivers ...

Council renews appeal for people to stay away from worst affected areas

Cork County Council have again appealed for people to stay away from Midleton main street. There have been reports of people coming especially to see the flooding for themselves. The council is saying it is hindering the clean-up effort.

Midleton residents struggle with the scale of losses: ‘We had no chance to save anything’

The stories of flood damage to premises and close escapes for people continue to come in from Midleton where Olivia Kelleher has been speaking with locals still trying to get to grips with the event of the past 24 hours.

“I saw a child being rescued down the Main Street last night to his dad,” says Maria Burgoyne of Say I Do bridal shop. “He was five or six. On his own on a boat. I don’t know where he came from. They had to bring him down to his dad.

“I saw an old man being rescued out of his apartment in Midleton. Women and children walking down the street to be rescued. It was like a war zone. It was unbelievable.”

Ms Burgoyne’s bridal shop suffered huge damage in the flood. She said she was heartbroken at the loss of stock and was concerned about the future of area businesses and described the whole event as being like a “bad dream”.

“This is such a vibrant town. I was lucky enough to escape [flooding] in the past but not this time. All our stock is destroyed. We had no chance to save anything. We were lucky to get out ourselves.”

Read the full story from Olivia here.

More rain, and potentially flooding, forecast for Cork area this evening

Met Éireann is forecasting more rain, some of it heavy, across Munster this evening.

In the latest post on the organisation’s website it anticipates “a bright afternoon with sunny spells and some showers. A mild day with highs of 15 to 17 degrees in light to moderate southeast breezes”.

But later, it suggests, there will be “showery outbreaks of rain tonight with some heavy bursts, bringing the potential for localised flooding again. Lowest temperatures of 10 to 13 degrees with mostly light breezes.”

On Friday, it says there will be a “few showers ... but also good dry and bright spells for much of the day. Later in the day rain will spread from the east.”

‘Honest debate’ needed on planning for flood-relief schemes, says Tánaiste

The Tánaiste has said the Government was “deeply concerned” about the impact of the floods and would be examining what level of intervention it could make in respect of supporting households and businesses.

Micheál Martin said the humanitarian assistance scheme was available to provide support to those living in properties directly affected by the flooding, with a fund of €10 million already in place for the scheme.

Mr Martin said there had to be “an honest debate” on the flood-relief schemes, many of which were delayed across the country due to objections.

He told the Dáil there were around 95 in design stage, under construction or in planning with 53 completed, and where they had been completed they were “working and preventing damage”.

Mr Martin said in Cork City the flood-relief scheme had been going on for years because of “objections, ending up in courts and so on”.

“People have to have balance and perspective,” he added.

The Fianna Fáil leader also said adaptation was key and climate change was “here and now” – “one month’s rain in a day means we have to adapt faster and that means we have to put in the flooding schemes much faster”.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Pearse Doherty said it was “fortunate no one had lost their lives” in the flooding.

Mr Doherty said many of the homes and businesses affected did not have flood insurance and there was an “urgent need” to ensure emergency funding was provided to local authorities, families and businesses.

Solidarity TD Mick Barry said the Taoiseach would “don the raincoat and the wellingtons” down in Midleton and “pose for the cameras and say the right things” this afternoon but that he would be gone by this evening and “the devastation will be left behind”.

“The Government will be judged, not by the quality of the photo opportunity but by the quality of the relief operation, by the speed and size of the compensation package and crucially on the actions taken now on flood defences,” he said.

Some really astonishing footage of the flooding posted on social media over the course of the past 24 hours including this from @CarlowWeather

Council effort prioritising Midleton, says official

The acting director of roads with Cork County Council, Mark O’Sullivan, has said assessment is ongoing for flood-hit areas in the county with Midleton the priority as it was the worst affected area.

“They’ve got a co-ordination centre established at the fire station. We have crews on the ground. And basically where we are now at the moment is in a clearing-up, trying to assess all the homeowners, residents and businesses that are affected,” he told RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.

“We will be providing skips. There are multi-agency staff on the ground, the fire service and all on staff on the ground. So there’s clean-up ongoing and there are other measures in place there as well.”

Mr O’Sullivan said “the minute the orange weather warning came into effect” the council’s severe weather team was on alert and deployed teams across the county to check on hotspots – drains, gullies, places where flood-barrier defences had been erected.

The situation in Midleton was still evolving, he said. The advice to people was to stay away today until the situation has been reviewed. People in the town were tired, stressed, emotional and he understood there was also anger, but the focus at present was on doing what could be done to provide support, Mr O’Sullivan added.

Councillor critical of OPW’s flood efforts

Fine Gael councillor for Midleton Susan McCarthy has said the Office of Public Works (OPW) “needs to pull the finger out” and implement the flood-relief scheme that the east Cork town has been awaiting since 2015.

“People are genuinely very, very angry. We had this the first time that this happened on 28th of December 2015, and it is indelibly imprinted on my brain because I was a councillor at the time, too. And luckily our property was only very, very lightly breached at the time. It was only about a centimetre or two. But I spent the next two weeks trying to help businesses.”

Cllr McCarthy said a five-year plan for a flood-relief scheme was promised then, but it was now almost eight years on and there had been no movement. “That makes me angry,” she told RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show. “I have to vent my frustration today. This is not aimed at anybody in particular. But I think that management needs to sit up and do something about this.

“The OPW needs to really pull the finger here because we cannot have any more delays. We just can’t, this is people’s livelihoods. And it’s not only their livelihoods, it’s their lives. There are people whose homes have been destroyed now.

“Our home is actually over a business. People were trapped in our shop yesterday. We brought them up. We gave them showers and we fed them all. And we waited for the civil defence to come and collect,” Cllr McCarthy said.

“The last of them left here at maybe seven at night. And we had no electricity at that point. It had gone and we were in the dark. And eventually myself and my daughter decided we were going to leave as well. My husband, I suppose the emotional attachment of his home and his business that his father had built over many years, he decided to stay at the property, but we decided to go.”

Wednesday had been the “worst day” she had ever experienced professionally “ever”. It [the flooding] had happened so fast that businesses did not have time to prepare; those that had sandbags did not have time to deploy them, she said.

Donna Hennessy, who owns a wedding-accessory shop in Midleton, said she had not yet managed to get into her premises to assess the damage, but she anticipated that the damage would be extensive as her shop was small and neighbouring premises had experienced over a foot of water.

She had been in business for 12 years and this was the first time that flood waters had extended as far as her shop. Ms Hennessy anticipated the cost of damage to her stock would be in the region of €10,000, apart from the structural and electrical damage.

Met Éireann’s forecast for today is “outbreaks of rain and drizzle will become largely confined to Ulster and Connacht this afternoon. Bright spells and scattered showers elsewhere, some possibly heavy. A mild day with highs of 13 to 17 degrees in light to moderate southeast breezes”.

The sun has just come out in Dublin, but it may be a temporary lull. Here’s what the satellite looks like. Find Ireland if you can.

By the way, you can check the weather forecast in your area on our weather page here.

Met Éireann to shake up its weather warning system

On the day of the storm yesterday, Met Éireann admitted it may be issuing too many weather warnings and is looking at raising the threshold for doing so. The forecaster currently puts status yellow, orange and red warnings in place depending on the severity of expected weather.

Eoin Sherlock, Met Éireann’s chief forecaster, said the thresholds for weather warnings are reviewed every 30 years or so, especially with the climate changing. He admitted there are “too many yellow warnings” and that it was working on a way “to minimise them”.

Mr Sherlock said the yellow warning wind speed threshold would be increased from 70km/h to 75km/h. Ronan McGreevy has the full story here.

Cork mayor questions why red alert wasn’t issued

The mayor of Cork County, Frank O’Flynn, called for an investigation into why the weather warning for Cork during Storm Babet was not upgraded to red status.

“It should have been red,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. “There was a torrential downpour ... Had there been a red status warning, schools and businesses would have been more prepared, cars would not have been out on the roads and not as much damage would have been caused.”

He said: “Our outdoor staff went above and beyond the call of duty, they worked all day yesterday and last night, without them things would have been much worse. Now we have to clean up.”

Cllr O’Flynn pointed out that there had been bad flooding in Midleton in 2015 at which stage a flood-alleviation plan was promised but has not yet been put in place. Similar schemes in Fermoy, Bandon and Mallow had stood the test of time, he said. He was now calling for immediate funding to be made available for flood defences for Midleton.

The director of services at Waterford City and Council, Fergus Galvin, has told of the “significant impact” on the road networks in the west of the county.

“We had some very significant issues on the main national primary route, which is the main route for services from Rosslare port through Waterford and on to Cork, That was blocked for a period of time when the sea wall which runs adjacent the road approaching Youghal bridge, was blown out by the surface waters there yesterday morning, which led to to significant, very, very significant delays there.

“And the N72 national road, which runs between Dungarvan Town to Fermoy and Mallow and further west, again, we’ve had significant issues all along that at stretches that run along the Blackwater River, and the Blackwater River was subjected to very significant runoff surface water from the adjoining areas yesterday.”

Mr Gavin said it has not yet been possible to assess the extent of damage because the roads are still under water and are likely to be so for the rest of today. He said he had been speaking to colleagues who had no recollection of flooding of this scale in the last 30 to 40 years.

“I would appeal to people not to drive down those roads. It’s not just the risk of getting stuck in flood waters, but there’s a risk as well that there could be surface damage to the road structure itself and that that could cause significant difficulties.”

Clean-ups will continue as hundreds of properties flooded

Clean-ups will continue throughout the day in Cork where hundreds of properties were flooded. Impacted areas include Midleton, Glanmire, Riverstown, Whitegate, Castlemartyr, Killeagh, Raffeen, Glandore, Ringaskiddy and Cloyne.

The N25 at Castlemartyr was still closed, with diversions via Tallow, Conna, Rathcormac and Dunkettle in place.

Cork County Council has urged motorists to be aware of standing water with damage to roads. Drivers are also asked to be “especially conscious” of “vulnerable road users” such as pedestrians and cyclists.

Iarnród Éireann said services had resumed from Cork/Cobh. Bus transfers are in place to Midleton as the Carrigtwohill/Midleton line remains closed.

‘This came so quickly’: Midleton floods ‘absolutely devastating’

[ In pictures: Storm Babet brings heavy rain and flooding to Ireland ]

The damage to Midleton was “absolutely devastating”, fire station officer in the town Mark Sinclair said. “I’m born and bred in the town, I’ve seen many a flood, but none of this capacity. This came so quick. We helped as much as we could and tried to get as many people to safety as possible.

“We’re still going around checking on people to see if they need help,” he said on Thursday morning.

“Numerous calls came in during the day [Wednesday]. I think it was 11am that the river burst its banks – then by 2pm there was pure devastation. The main street was like a river.

“A lot of the shops have no insurance because it’s a flood zone, the town hasn’t seen anything like this in 400 years,” he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

Mr Sinclair explained recent heavy rain had led to saturated ground and then there was high tide along with torrential rain, which led to the river bursting its banks.

Midleton solicitor Ken Murray told of how he noticed the waters rising from 11am and by early afternoon the water outside his office door was three feet deep. He was unable to open the door because of water pressure.

Looking out the window, he saw a man in a canoe and asked him to help, which he did by bringing him to the main street where he could see cars caught in the flood water. All local businesses were in the same position, he said – waiting to see what damage had been caused and what their next step would be.