Denis Boyle BA File photo: Members of the defence forces rescuing stranded motorists near Bandon in December 2015 Denis Boyle BA

A COMPUTER SYSTEMS glitch has caused natives of Bandon, Co Cork, to be inundated with flooding text alerts for their locality.

Cork County Council has confirmed that the alerts being sent relate to a “system error” and that there is no cause for alarm.

“We are currently trying to resolve the issue,” a spokeswoman said.

The current FEWS (Flood Early Warning System) is ‘green’ with little rain forecast for the coming week.

The malfunctioning system had issued in some cases hundreds of flood alerts to people signed up to the service over the course of this afternoon.

The alerts have led to much puzzlement on social media, though many are choosing to see the humorous side of things.

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“Due to a technical fault in the Bandon Flood Early Warning System, the system has inadvertently been issuing a number of inaccurate text alerts to subscribers,” Cork County Council said in an updated statement.

Cork County Council wishes to advise that it is a systems fault. Subscribers are advised to ignore the content of the messages. Cork County Council has taken immediate steps to try to identify the source of the fault giving rise to these erroneous messages.

The Council has published clarifications on its website, various social media platforms, and also to the media advising that this is a systems fault and that the inaccurate text alerts should be disregarded.

Cork County Council regrets this incident and is working hard to resolve it. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

Currently, the FEWS website is down, although the messages themselves mercifully seem to have stopped. The system was introduced several years ago to warn residents and businesses of any flooding risk.

The Cork town has a long history of flooding. In November 2009 many businesses and homes were destroyed when the River Bandon burst its banks.

Read: Photos of children used in Doonbeg brochure without consent of parents

Read: This town has the highest rate of empty shops and offices in Ireland

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