Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Storm Babet continues to cause disruption in Ireland as warnings remain

An orange rain alert covering Dublin and Wicklow is in place until 8am on Saturday.

By Grinne N. Aodha
Friday 20 October 2023 20:50 BST
A man cycles along Clontarf promenade in Dublin as Ireland’s meteorological agency issued fresh weather warnings for intense rain (PA)
A man cycles along Clontarf promenade in Dublin as Ireland’s meteorological agency issued fresh weather warnings for intense rain (PA) (PA Wire)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Storm Babet caused more travel disruption in parts of Ireland on Friday amid forecasts of further heavy rain.

Forecaster Met Eireann issued a status orange rain warning for counties Dublin and Wicklow until 8am on Saturday.

A yellow rain warning for counties Meath and Louth was to lift at midnight on Friday.

A yellow rain warning from the UK Met Office was issued for Northern Ireland earlier in the day.

Irish Rail warned passengers of weather-related delays to some services on Friday evening while there were reports of spot flooding on roads causing disruption in parts of Dublin.

Earlier, Ireland’s Minister for Finance said a proposal was being worked on to increase the level of support that will be offered to those affected by this week’s flooding in Co Cork.

Michael McGrath said money will be available through a scheme to be administered by the Red Cross “from next week”.

This currently offers an initial 5,000 euro and further support of up to 20,000 euro based on the scale of damage.

Mr McGrath said many businesses in Midleton in Co Cork had their “destroyed” Christmas stock out on the street.

“The assessment of the full scale of the damage to homes and businesses will take some time, but the support will be there and that is the overarching message,” he told RTE Radio on Friday.

“We do have to ensure, insofar as we can, that all of these businesses that were viable before two days ago can trade into the future.”

Mr McGrath said “there will be a need to go further” because “many” businesses did not have insurance because of previous flooding.

He said a proposal was being worked on by Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney which he expected would offer “an increased level of support” and go to Cabinet next Tuesday.

“The majority of the businesses (in Midleton) are severely damaged or destroyed, so this is on a scale that we haven’t seen in recent times, and so the response will have to be of a different nature and a different magnitude.”

A major clean-up operation is under way to deal with the aftermath of flooding that swamped several towns and villages in Ireland’s south west during the week.

Army and civil defence units were deployed to support evacuation measures in Midleton following the storm.

On Friday, residents of the Woodland estate in Midleton were advised to be on “high alert” amid concerns of further flooding and people were told to avoid parts of the town.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in