Red Wind Warning in effect across Cork County – Storm Barra

Cork County remains under a Met Éireann Red Wind Warning until 9.00pm tonight as Storm Barra travels across the country with severe and damaging wind gusts in excess of 130km/h expected. Dangerous conditions are also being experienced at sea with marine warnings in place along all Irish coasts, including a Red Marine Warning for southwestern sea areas. A Yellow Rain Warning is also in effect with the strong winds accompanied by heavy rain.

Cork County Council crews have been on standby throughout the night with sandbags deployed and pumps in operation across known flood risk areas.

River levels are also being monitored with flood barriers erected in Mallow and Fermoy on Monday.

The Council’s Severe Weather Assessment Team and Crisis Management Team will convene this morning as updates are received in relation to any incidents across the county.

At this time the worst affected area in Cork County is Bantry, with an estimated 23 premises affected this morning at High Tide from 05.30am onwards. The tide was extremely high due to High Astronomical Tide, storm surcharging and wave action. This combined to overtop the temporary defences and surcharged the storm system within the town. While high tide in Bantry was at 06.39am the tide is likely to remain high for a number of hours due to the storm and wave action.

Flooding also occurred on the Back Street in Youghal which is now receding. There are multiple reports of trees down and roads flooded throughout the county.

Cork County Council continues to ask members of the public to stay at home and avoid any unnecessary activity. Council offices and facilities will be closed for the duration of this Red Weather event, however services will continue to be delivered from staff operating remotely.

Issues such as fallen trees, flooding and road damage should be reported by calling 021 4276891 between 9am and 5pm or via the Council’s Emergency Out of Hours number 021 4800048.

The strong winds may give rise to localised power outages. In the event of a disruption to power supply, please contact ESB Networks at 1800 372999. Fallen or grounded wires should be avoided and the public are advised to call ESB in assisting with the identification of fallen wires.

In the event of a disruption to water supply, please contact Irish Water at 1800 278278.

In the event of an emergency call 999 or 112 and request the Fire Service, Ambulance Service, Gardaí or Irish Coastguard as appropriate. DO NOT assume others will do this.

Cork County Council’s Severe Weather Assessment will continue to monitor this situation.

Cork County Council will continue to provide updates on www.corkcoco.ie and across the Council’s social media channels @Corkcoco.