Heavy rain causes flooding in Sligo town

NORTH WEST: The ESB said the north west had been the least affected area of the country in terms of interrupted power supplies…

NORTH WEST: The ESB said the north west had been the least affected area of the country in terms of interrupted power supplies following Thursday night's severe storms.However, heavy overnight rain led to flooding in a number of areas in Sligo town, resulting in traffic disruption for a time.

The worst affected area for loss of power supply was in north Donegal, where up to 200 households in the Carndonagh and outer Letterkenny area had to wait until last night to have their supplies restored.

Households in Kilkelly and Swinford in Co Mayo, and in the Dowra area of north Leitrim experienced power cuts yesterday morning, but supplies were quickly restored.

"There were a few pockets where customers lost supply for a couple of hours in the morning, but most of them were back to normal before long", said Mr Pat Kelly, ESB spokesman for the Sligo area. "The weather conditions were quite rough during the night , but as far as damage to our system is concerned, we got off relatively lightly."

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The ESB also issued warnings to the public to stay away from fallen power cables, and to report any such incidents to the board or to the gardaí.

Power lines were blown down in Cliffoney in north Sligo, and in Kilglass in the west of the county.

"Any problems which we had, crews were on stand-by, and such problems were tackled very quickly," Mr Kelly said.

However, he did express concern at the possibility of weather conditions deteriorating overnight, leading to more problems.

Meanwhile, several areas in Sligo town were badly flooded yesterday morning.

They included Cartron, on the Rosses Point road, Quay Street, and Rathedmond estate.

Gardaí were warning motorists to take extra care when driving in those areas.