Tag Archives: Storm Desmond

News

Counting The Cost Of Storm Damage Around The County

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Flooding in Ballymullen during Storm Desmond in early December. Photo by Dermot Crean

KERRY County Council has applied for funding, after storms over the past month caused damage to a number of piers, harbours and approach roads, including the Tralee-Fenit road.

In a report to the Tralee Municipal District on Monday it was revealed that it will cost over €4m to repair damage caused by the storms which hit the county on three occasions over December.

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Part of that damage was caused to piers, harbours and approach roads and it was outlined that the Council has applied to the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for funding for the following locations:

• Tralee/Fenit Regional Road: Coastal Protection Works – €250,000

• Cliff Road, Ballyheigue / adjacent to the fishery slipway – Coastal Protection Works required, approx 280m of rock armour revetment – €500,000

• Cliff Road, Rossbeigh: further damage to coastal embankment – €500,000.

• Provision of a new road to replace existing road, Lower Road, Rossbeigh, €1.1m.

• Ballinskelligs Pier: further structural damage/undermining of pier – €160,000.

• Scraggane Pier – further damage/undermining of pier €80,000

The report from Senior Engineer, David Doyle, revealed that 250 council staff were involved in helping the public during the storm events in December.

There were 100 outdoor staff, 30 retained fire services staff, 100 Civil Defence volunteers and 20 senior staff involved.  Approximately 18,000 sandbags were filled and deployed during the storm events.

During Storm Desmond on December 4/5, the River Lee recorded levels of between 77mm and 114mm over a 36 hour period, the highest since the level since the installation of the gauge in 1975, exceeding the previous high in 1986.

With regards to properties affected during the storm events, the total number of evacuated dwellings since December 3 is 17 with the residents returning to 15 of those dwellings since.

The number of dwellings damaged by flooding was 48 with 506 residential properties inaccessible due to road flooding.

The number of dwellings currently under threat of flooding is 27 and 24 business premises were affected by the flooding.

News

Almost 10,000 Sandbags Distributed As Council Thanks Emergency Services For Efforts

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The Town Park playground flooded on Sunday afternoon. Photo by Dermot Crean

ALMOST 10,000 sandbags were distributed throughout the county during the chaos caused by Storm Desmond at the weekend.

The Cathaoirleach of Kerry County Council Pat McCarthy and its Chief Executive Moira Murrell have issued a joint statement thanking the emergency services for their efforts.

“In the aftermath of the exceptional weather event Storm Desmond which hit Kerry on Friday night, through Saturday and into Sunday morning, we wish to sincerely thank all the emergency service providers who attended including Council workers , the Fire Service, the Gardai , the HSE along with the Army,” the statement reads.

“We also wish to thank sincerely the very significant contribution made by the Civil Defence, Irish Red Cross and Killarney Inshore Rescue who had over 100 volunteers responding to the emergency and were assisting on site from Friday afternoon.”

“Through the collective planned efforts by all of these agencies, almost 10,000 sandbags were distributed to high risk areas and the risk of injury to life was managed.”

“The contribution of the public in heeding the safety advice given by the emergency services is greatly acknowledged, in particular the community spirit and resilience shown in attending to elderly and vulnerable neighbours.”

They also thanked the local media outlets who greatly assisted Kerry County Council in keeping the public informed of updates as the weather progressed.

The Council is presently working on the cleanup and are working with communities to attend to those areas affected and working with residents to assist them as required.

News

Calm After The Storm, But It Won’t Last

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The rainfall radar image of Ireland at 10.15am.

WHAT a difference a day makes.

This is the rainfall radar image of Ireland from Met Eireann at 10.15am this morning.

Hardly a shower throughout the country as Storm Desmond has passed and we can look forward to a fine day ahead with sunny spells developing.

It’s a far cry from yesterday at 9.30am when the storm was in full swing.

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The rainfall image of Ireland at 9.30am yesterday morning.

It’s little solace for the people who are left to clear up the damage caused by flooding in their homes today.

Today, there is just a slight chance of an isolated light shower or two near the coast, but it’ll be nothing like yesterday.

Winds will be light for most of the day, but it’ll be quite cold, with afternoon temperatures of 7 to 9 Celsius.

It can’t last of course and later today, rain will develop in the southwest and south, with a freshening east to southeast wind, spreading northwards to all parts during the evening and early night.

Tonight will become very windy and cloudy, with occasional rain, accompanied by strong and gusty southerly winds. Hill and coastal fog also.

Becoming very mild however, with minimum temperatures of 7 to 9 Celsius in the early night, increasing to 10 to 12 degrees overnight.

Monday is looking bleak though with strong to gale force southerly winds and with a risk of some severe and damaging gusts, especially near coasts.

Patches of rain and drizzle will occur and a band of persistent and heavy rain will spread from the Atlantic during the afternoon, clearing later to showers.

News

Army Called Into Tralee To Help In Flooded Areas

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Flooding in Manor Village earlier today. Photo by Martina Ryan Murphy

THE flooding situation in Tralee has required the services of the army tonight.

As well as a platoon of soldiers dispatched to Bandon in Cork, a Defence Forces statement tonight revealed; “6X6 TCVs and soldiers have also been deployed to Kenmare, Tralee and Bantry and will be co-located with HSE medical teams to assist them to get to medical emergencies in flooded areas if required.”

There is severe flooding in Manor Village and Ballymullen with road diversions in place in these areas as well as in Caherwisheen out on the Castlemaine Road.

Castlewood Park in the Manor area has also been badly affected.

Water levels in Ballymullen rose from 0.8 metres last night to 3.2 metres tonight.

A section of the Tralee bypass road, from the Rose roundabout to Ballygarry roundabout is closed.

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Manor village tralee WOW. Went canoeing

News

PHOTOS: Severe Flooding In Manor Judging By These Images

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This guy in Manor was making the most of the floods.

THERE’S still hours to go before the rain eases off, but that’s little solace for some people in estates around town.

People have been posting photos of the floods on social media all day and this one has cropped up on the Benchwarmers Twitter page which looks like a guy in Manor Village making the most of the incoming water.

Seriously though, the people in Manor, Ballymullen and many more places have taken a battering today.

Martina Ryan Murphy also posted these photos from upstairs in her house in Manor.

“Manor Village is now a lake!! My road totally blocked at entrance. A virtual, unmoving river!” Martina told us when we contacted her on Facebook.

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Floods outside Martina Ryan Murphy’s house in Manor. Photo courtesy of Martina Ryan Murphy
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Floods outside Martina Ryan Murphy’s house in Manor. Photo courtesy of Martina Ryan Murphy

Let’s hope the damage won’t be too bad when the waters subside tomorrow.

News

Wind Warning For Kerry Upgraded To Status Orange

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It was rough out in Blennerville this afternoon.

IT just got worse.

As Storm Desmond batters Kerry, it now appears to be getting worse as the Yellow Status Wind Warning For Kerry has been upgraded to Orange by Met Eireann.

The updated warning is for Kerry, Wexford, Wicklow, Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo, Clare, Cork and Waterford.

Southwest winds with reach  mean speeds of 60 to 75km/h and will gust over 100 km/h at times.  Winds will be strongest in coastal areas. That’s us then.

The update was issued at 1.41pm and is valid from 2pm until 3am on Sunday.

Meanwhile the road at Ballymullen is impassable and cars are being turned away.

The Castlemaine Road outside Tralee is closed and there is no access to Cuil Didín Nursing home. However, emergency measures have been put in place should there be a need for emergency access.

Motorists advised to avoid the north bound carriageway of the Tralee Bypass from the Killarney Road interchange to the Castleisland Road Interchange as there is flooding there.

There is localized flooding reported on the N86 Tralee-Dingle road at Annagh and at the road near the rugby club in Ballyard.

The Cork/Kerry Road at Glenflesk is closed as is Molls Gap.

Kenmare is taking an awful battering with significant flooding reported.

News

VIDEO/PHOTOS: Fire Service And Civil Defence Try To Alleviate Flooding At Ballymullen

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Flooding at Ballymullen. Photo by Dermot Crean

IT’S an area prone to flooding in the past and this time it’s no different.

We went to Ballymullen to see the extent of the flooding and it looks bad as you can see in the video (below) taken at 1.30pm today.

The fire service and civil defence were on the scene doing their best to alleviate the situation in the relentless rain and gale force winds.

The flooding stretched all the way from the post office right down to the exit at the end and out onto the main road. The red status rainfall alert is due to end at 3am Sunday morning.

Scroll down for video and more photos…

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Flooding at Ballymullen today. Photo by Dermot Crean
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The park area at Ballymullen flooded.
News

Everything’s Blue As Storm Desmond Batters Kerry

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The rainfall radar image of Ireland at 9.30am this morning.

FEELING blue this morning because of the weather?

We don’t blame you. Here’s what Ireland looks like on the rainfall radar supplied by Met Eireann at 9.30am.

That big blue hue over Ireland shows

Kerry is being hit by high winds and sustained rainfall, expected to last into the early hours of Sunday morning and it’s already having an impact around the county.

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Here’s the information we’ve got from AA Roadwatch and Kerry County Council tweets.

• Around Tralee there is flooding on the Tralee-Fenit road which the AA advise to avoid if possible.

• There are road closed signs up at Annagh on the Dingle Road and at the rugby club at Ballyard.

• There is surface water at Ballymullen in Tralee.

• The N22 at Glenflesk is impassable and diversions are in place.