Cork City Council is calling on residents to take care on the roads on Wednesday after Met Éireann issued a status-orange rain warning.
The weather agency said there will be heavy and persistent rain in Cork and Kerry on Wednesday. Flooding can be expected as a result of high tides, while there could be difficult driving conditions.
The warning will be in place for 24 hours from 12pm on Wednesday, with a yellow warning currently in place for both counties.
The forecaster has also issued a status-yellow rainfall warning for Co Waterford, which will be in place from midday on Wednesday.
Cloudy & damp across the bulk of the country today with outbreaks of rain & drizzle☁️🌧️
Heavy falls in places especially in the south & southwest with the chance of flooding🌊
However, drier weather will develop in the north & northwest later this morning & during the afternoon pic.twitter.com/cC1r197Owq— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) March 13, 2024
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David Joyce, director of operations at Cork City Council, told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that anyone travelling on roads around the city today should take extra care.
“If you're a cyclist, don't cycle into floods. If you're a pedestrian, if you see a flooded area ahead of you, take an alternative route. It might take an extra five minutes, but please do not drive, cycle or walk into floods. Please take care of your own health and safety and look for an alternate route. If you do come across a flooded property, please report to the authorities so we can address that issue immediately,” he said.
However, Mr Joyce said the local authority was not expecting “significant” flooding in the city. There might be “localised” incidents.
“We're expecting there will be over 24 hours of constant heavy driving rain with some strong winds throughout the day. So while we're not expecting any very significant flooding across the city, we don't expect, for example, the River Lee or any of its key catchments to burst their banks.
“We are expecting in localised areas, localised drainage systems to get caught up with debris or to become overwhelmed.
“What we're seeing is that you may have a local culvert running in on the side of a road, where debris is going to be washed into branches of trees, and the strong winds start to clog up some of those localised drains you may get localised flooding on back roads or in specific location. That's one of the problems with an event like this. I could give an indication of where something might happen across the city. It could literally happen anywhere, but it will be very localised in nature.”
Mr Joyce pointed out that it is anticipated that between 30mm to 40mm of rain will fall in a 24-hour period. “Unfortunately, as you can imagine, we can't predict where a branch might fall off a tree and partially block a gully or the debris getting into a drainage channel and causing a partial blockage.
“So really, we are not expecting this to be a significant flooding event across the city for next 24 hours. We are expecting it to be a wet, miserable, total rainy day today and into tomorrow. We are not expecting significant flooding across the city. So you're not expecting at worst.”
Contingency plans were in place, he added. “Our severe weather assessment team met yesterday after the warning was issued by Met Eireann. And we have all of our roads crews, all of our drainage crews, all of our water crews, all of our parks crews all ready and staff on standby to react to any incident that might happen.
“So obviously, what we would suggest to members of the public is if you come across a non-emergency flooding situation, you should ring Cork City Council on 021492 4000. However, obviously if you come across an emergency situation, you should ring the emergency services on 999.”
Elsewhere, the rain will gradually clear the northern half of the country through Wednesday morning and most areas will become dry for a time in the afternoon. It will stay dull and damp on Wednesday further south where rain and drizzle will continue.
Met Éireann said the weather will remain unsettled for the rest of the week with rain or showers across most areas.
