Clean-up operations are under way across the country after strong winds and high tides caused major damage to homes, businesses and roads.
And there’s more to come.
Met Éireann has warned southwest gales will affect all Irish coastal waters and the Irish Sea, but winds will ease and frost and ice will form. Temperatures will drop as low as -4 degrees tonight. Extremely windy or stormy weather is likely to develop for tomorrow night and continue through much of Monday.
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The highest tide on record affected Dublin city yesterday, as the river Liffey burst its banks near the Guinness Storehouse and Heuston Station, leading to traffic disruption on the quays. Flooding at the East Link toll bridge caused it to be closed for a few hours yesterday.
Seafront shop-owners and restaurants in Clontarf were bracing themselves by putting out sandbags, as some of the highest tides of the year have been predicted this weekend.
A huge stretch of the promenade was flooded yesterday, with the incoming tide filling gullies and flooding the road. The promenade walkway in Clontarf flooded on Thursday for the first time since 2004.
Southwest gales
Floodgates on the Dodder and Tolka rivers will remain closed until the middle of next week, while the Liffey boardwalk will be closed to the public until next week, with flood barriers blocking entrances.
The ESB restored power to about 1,000 homes last night. The worst affected area was west Wicklow, where a number of homes and businesses were left without power following a lightning storm.
Coastal towns and villages across three peninsulas in Kerry were battered by high tides, torrential rain and gale-force winds. Ballybunion beaches took a severe battering while in Dingle Bay, the sea wall was breached in a number of places. Locals say it was the worst flooding in living memory.
Lee contained
In Cork last night, the flood waters in the river Lee remained contained within both river channels even at high tide, to the relief of homeowners and businesspeople as well as Cork City Council. Attention now turns to high tides today and tomorrow, when it is forecast that stormy weather conditions will again coincide with high spring tides, which may again cause the river Lee to overflow the quay walls in the city.
In Galway, parts of the promenade in Salthill were closed to traffic yesterday after Seapoint promenade from Grattan Road to the Atlantaquarium and a stretch of the road in front of the Galway Bay and Salthill Hotel were flooded. The Leisureland complex was flooded and will be closed until at least Monday.
Storm-force winds
Heavy overnight rain, storm- force winds and high tides brought spot flooding, road closures and transport disruption to parts of counties Derry, Antrim and Down. However there was no widespread serious flooding as had been feared, especially in low-lying parts of central and east Belfast.
The river Bann at Coleraine, Co Derry, burst its banks and flooded areas of the town centre for a time, while the Foyle bridge in Derry city was also closed. In Belfast, the Duncrue area off the M2 was closed, while walls of sandbags were prepared in Sydenham near the city airport in east Belfast.