The River Shannon at Athlone on 9 December Sasko Lazarov Sasko Lazarov

Updated 14.08

LIMERICK CITY AND County Council (LCCC) has issued a weather alert with more flooding in the Shannon’s catchment area deemed inevitable.

Met Éireann has said that rainfall amounts between tomorrow and Wednesday will be in the 30-60mm range for many areas with “further flooding inevitable”.

The Council says water levels along the Lower River Shannon at Castleconnell, Montpelier, Mountshannon Road (Lisnagry) and in the Limerick City area have risen approximately 100mm during the past 48 hours.

Clare County Council has similarly said that the county is braced for further flooding, and that standard procedures are in place should such flooding transpire.

“Council staff are continuing pumping operations at Castleconnell and Montpelier,” said Vincent Murray, senior engineer with LCCC.

The Council remains on alert to ensure that the necessary responses can be immediately activated in the event of flooding during the coming days as approximately two inches of rainfall is forecast between Monday and Wednesday.

Despite the warning put in place by LCCC water levels in the region remain 275mm lower than they were at their peak on 13 December during the intense flooding experienced earlier this month.

Standard operating and response procedures are in place in the event of localised flooding incidents occurring according to Murray.

In the meantime, we are advising members of the public to exercise caution in the vicinity of waterways during the Christmas period due to forecasts of heavy rain and higher than average tides.

Eamonn Farrell Eamonn Farrell

Rainfall

High levels of rainfall in the past number of days in the Shannon catchment area has led to water levels in Lough Derg that have continued to rise.

Consequently, water flowing through the Parteen Weir at Lough Derg has today increased to 405 cubic metres per second (cumecs), according to the ESB.

Yesterday, the flow of water at the weir was 370 cumecs while at the peak of the floods following storm Desmond it reached 440 cumecs

In normal conditions, the flow of water through the weir is about 10 cumecs.

The ESB are therefore today warning that there is an increased risk of flooding on land and property in the vicinity of the Shannon downstream of Parteen Weir.

Some of these areas include Springfield, Montpelier, Castleconnell, Annacotty and the University of Limerick.

The situation could be set to worsen with Met Éireann predicting “very wet and very windy weather” for this afternoon as heavy rain pushes in from the Atlantic.

People in ‘at risk’ areas are being warned to avoid walking along riverbanks with motorists advised to check local authority warnings before making a journey.

Flooding advice is available on www.flooding.ie. Information included on the website includes advice on identifying flooding risks, protecting property against flooding, necessary steps to be taken if a property is flooded, and assessing and repairing property damaged by flooding.

Additional reporting Cianan Brennan

First published 12.23

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