THE NATIONAL COORDINATION Group on Severe Weather has warned that heavy rainfall over the weekend poses a major risk with rivers already near capacity continuing to rise across the country.
The group met again today to discuss the treat posed by the rising rivers, to review the response date and to assess the impact of the recent weather and floods on infrastructure and communities.
Following last night’s heavy rainfall there are no reports of major episodes of flooding. However Met Éireann has reiterated that the current unsettled weather is likely to continue into next week with heavy rainfall forecast, particularly in the south, south-west and south-wast.
“This rain will serve to top up the already near capacity of our rivers and still poses a major risk,” the group said in a statement. “This risk is heightened in slow moving rivers and particularly the Shannon. The Barrow, Nore, Suir and Slaney are also at very high levels and any additional rain may cause serious flooding.”
Currently there is a code Yellow in operation and the group said the full resources at both national and local government are available to deal with the current phase of bad weather.
It said that the major OPW flood defences which have been put in place in some of the major urban areas such as Clonmel, Kilkenny and Mallow are “working effectively” to prevent flooding in these locations.
Minister Phil Hogan TD. is visiting Wexford and Waterford today to assess the damage in the aftermath of the recent flooding event, and Ministers Joan Burton and Jan O’Sullivan are in Limerick today,visiting local communities and reviewing the clean up operations.
The public have been reminded to continue to follow the weather warning and to heed the safety messages of the authorities, and noted that there have been no fatalities in the current flooding episodes.
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