Cork escapes flooding fears from Storm Brian

Fears that Storm Brian might lead to flooding in Cork city and a number of county towns proved unfounded as high tide passed off in both the city and county with only minimal surface flooding and all roads remained open.

Cork City Council had issued a warning to motorists of possible localised surface flooding at Morrison's Island, South Terrace and Wandesford Terrace off the South Channel of the River Lee between 5.30pm and 7pm this evening coinciding with high tides.

But according to gardaí at Anglesea Street in Cork city centre, who were monitoring city streets, high tide in the city passed off without incident with just minor spot flooding occurring on Morrison’s Island near the footbridge but the entire quay area remained open and passable for traffic.

It was a similar story in the county where Cork County Council had issued a warning for possible flooding in low lying areas of towns such as Bantry and Clonakilty in West Cork and Midleton and Youghal in East Cork which are often prone to flooding during high tides during storms.

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Gardaí in Bantry reported the high tides passing off without incident at around 6pm as sunshine throughout the afternoon meant there was no surface run off in the Square area.

Gardaí in Clonakilty were also reporting no flooding issues with all roads remaining open and passable.

Gardaí in Midleton said there was some minor flooding on the approach to Cobh at Belvelly during high tide and similarly on the Bailick Road in Midleton but once rain stopped, any flooding quickly subsided and roads remained open while there were no reports of any flooding from Youghal.

However both local authorities in Co Cork were bracing themselves for possible damage to trees, telegraph poles and buildings after Met Éireann issued a status orange wind alert for late on Friday night and the early hours of Saturday morning as Storm Brian was forecast to hit the south west.

According to Met Éireann, wind speeds could hit 65 to 80km/h gusting to 110 to 130km/h in some places, making travel dangerous for motorists with the risk of falling trees and telegraph poles as well as hoardings and tiles and other projectiles being blown from buildings.

Tom Stritch from Cork County Council advised people not to undertake any unnecessary journeys as roadside trees which may not have fallen in Storm Ophelia may have been loosened or had branches broken which could come down on roadways during Storm Brian.

Meanwhile ESB Networks Southern Division Manager, Denis Cambridge told The Irish Times that repair crews will continue working to restore power until 10pm on Friday night before assessing the situation arising from Storm Brian and crews would be stood down on safety grounds if necessary.

Mr Cambridge said around 300 ESB Networks repair crews supported by another 500 repair crews from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, England and France have so far restored power to all but 23,000 of the 88,000 Cork customers who lost power due to Storm Ophelia.

“We would hope to have the vast bulk of homes reconnected by Sunday night with only small outages left to be repaired on Monday and Tuesday - barring of course any further disruption tonight from Storm Brian but we are hoping it will just lick the coast and not come inland,” he said.