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Limerick man Ger Hogan brings people through the water at St Mary’s Park in Limerick. (Pic: Sean Curtin)
EVEN WITH ALL the warnings, there was little defence from the severe weather for large parts of the country today.
Storm-force winds and high tides combined to create treacherous conditions, particularly along the Atlantic coast, with severe flooding and some damage in Cork, Limerick, Clare, Galway and Kerry.
Some residents had to be rescued from their homes in Limerick after the Shannon burst its banks and left families trapped in their houses.
Local authorities, the HSE and An Garda Síochana are all involved in the response to what has been described as a severe flood emergency in the county.
Flood prevention efforts had been put in place in high-risk areas, but the unprecedented high tide this morning overwhelmed the defences. Emergency services have been working in the county since 6am.
A number of vulnerable people have been rescued from their homes, and the local authorities said the need to evacuate people is being reviewed “on a continual basis”. A community centre in Killeely is being used to care for people removed from their homes.
About 100 local residents in Little Island, Limerick, have been moved to the institute of technology by the Irish Defence Forces.
Water levels in the worst affected areas remain at a very high level, the local authorities said, and the city will be at risk from flooding at high tide until at least Monday.
The heavy winds caused severe damage to the coastal town of Lahinch in Clare, where parts of the promenade were smashed into pieces.
Hundreds of residents in Clare, Kerry and Galway remain without power as a result of the storm damage.
Met Éireann issued an orange alert weather warning for the day, with winds of up to 130 km/h expected and the public have been warned to take care, particularly along the coast.
Galway County Council has urged the public to avoid the coast at times of high tide, and to avoid parking cars in areas liable to flooding.
An Garda Síochána has warned road users to slow down and take care, tweeting: “High winds with damaging gusts & heavy showers across the road network over the coming hours. Bsafe”.
The playground at the promenade at Lahinch in Clare remains closed after it was flooded this morning. (Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)
Children play amid the damage to the promenade at Lahinch in Clare (Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)
Damage to the promenade in Lahinch this morning (Pic: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)
Flood waters in the Lee Estate in Limerick City (Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire)
Residents navigate flood waters after a flash flood on the Lee Estate in Limerick City (Niall Carson/PA Wire)
Locals survey the damage on Athlunkard Street after the River Shannon burst its banks in Limerick City (Pic: Sean Curtin)
Aidan Murnane and Ger Murnane survey the flood damage in their house on Athlunkard Street in Limerick City (Pic Sean Curtin)
Limerick City Fire & Rescue evacuate elderly people from their homes (Pic Sean Curtin)
Limerick City and County Council workers put sandbags around City Hall ( Pic Sean Curtin)
Well, that’s one use for it… The God Delusion stuck in a door on Athlunkard Street (Pic: Sean Curtin)
Residents using a boat to get through the water in Limerick (Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire)
Workers try to mend the railings at the promenade at Lahinch (Pic: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)
Flood waters in Assumpta Park in Limerick this morning (Pic: Pat Tobin/Twitter)
The Corbally Road in Limerick (Pic: Ronan Costello/Twitter)
The River Shannon overflows onto O’Callaghan Strand in Limerick. (Pic: felix85/Twitter)
Mill Road in Limerick (Pic: Cathal Shaw/Twitter)
Even with the floods, yo u still have to get the milk in… (Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire)
The LE Róisín on patrol in Irish waters amid the stormy weather (Pic: defenceforces/Twitter)
Gale force winds cause high waves to batter the promenade at Lahinch at high tide at around 5.45am today. (Pic: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)
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Love the one with the chap holding the milk ” a cup of tea will sort it all out ” real Irish :)
I can imagine his Mammy sending him down to the shop for milk. “Will you go on! Sure its only a bit of rain! We’ve no milk for the tea!”
Horse outside..came in handy
Anyone know what Galway City itself is like
Flood St is a bit flooded !
Wouldn’t you do the same for your Mammy Pa?
Good spot for a weekend. Always lots to do weather it’s the dogs. Connacht rugby. Oyster festival. Or just a serious sesh Galway city is only mighty. And I’m from Dublin itself.
Shop st = temple bar………………………wtf…………
leinster rugby, dublin festivals (everyweek) and a session anywhere you are in dublin……………………….
sasha is from galway………..
I’d say the residents of Clontarf are kicking themselves they didn’t let them build the flood defences now
Floody hell!
Met eireann has issued a yellow snow warning for the South..
“DO NOT EAT!!”
The frequency of this extreme weather is climate change in action and what is the world doing about it, spewing even more co2 into the atmosphere, on top of the half a trillion tons already pumped into the atmosphere since the last industrial revolution.
I’m not so sure we can blame climate change. There are still 3% of climate scientists disputing it! Plus the oil companies say it’s just a ploy to make people spend money on renewable energy. I reckon we should hold off blaming our own climate changing actions. At least until Limerick Clare and Galway are Islands- then I might accept it. Might!
Sure take cork with you too on your islands of islands. Then when it rains in Dublin we can complain without being told how good we have it.
The oil companies make their money out of fossil fuels, so they are hardly going to be in favor of renewables. Bottom line there is more co2 in the atmosphere than at any point in the last 800,000 years. Sea levels have risen seven inches in the last 100 years. which is more than the previous 2,000 years. Arctic sea ice has decreased 80% in the last 30 years, affecting the jet stream and affecting our weather patterns.
What are the bookies odds, if I want to put a tenner on those 3%?
But we do have it good in Dublin. We should be grateful. I had the misfortune of having to work on the Gas Terminal in Rossport. Leave Dublin at around 05:00 on a Monday. Sun rising, Irish Sea flat like a mirror. Beautiful. Mullingar, cloudy. Longford, drizzle. Ballina, raining. Bellmullet, pissing down. Very disheartening.
What are you wishing on those of us in the West and Mid West, Theresa. No man is an island even if some of us end up afloat!
Jesus Theresa but the oil companies would say that, wouldn’t they?
What you expect Enda the creep from Mayo
Well Lord Monckton says it’s all a scam so it must be. I mean with a name like that he must know everything! As for the bookies odds Kevin – good luck with that. Almost as hard to get as insurance for a house in Clontarf by now. But you gotta love Monckton!
@JOHN TURNIP. stop being hysterical, the ice at both poles is back to normal. CO2 has been rising while the planet has cooled over the last 18 years [even the IPCC admit this through gritted teeth] and further human contribution to the CO2 in the atmosphere is just under 3% of the total. If sea levels are rising this is not showing on the tide gauges or your guru Al Gore would not have bought a $7million plus beachfront home.
PS none of the models used by these scientist chums of yours has been in any way accurate therefore their beliefs are based on wishful thinking.
ipsum,
sigh.entists will say what they are told to say.
Ipsum the climate scientist. WOW
Could you please advise me where I can get a published, peer reviewed, climate scientist paper that refutes climate change and the fact that it is being accelerated by human activity? Please oh knowledgable one
Ipsum’s modus never involves providing any evidence for his statements. He just says stuff. Let us hope he can live with his own conscience. Now Ipsum, I do find it very hard indeed trying to choose between yourself and science… let me see now…
The National Snow and Ice Data Centre had this to say about December 2013:
“The linear trend in ice extent for December (1978 through 2013) is now −3.5% per decade, or −46,500 square kilometers per year (−18,000 square miles per year). The lowest December extent was recorded in 2010 (12.02 million square kilometers or 4.64 million square miles). The spatial pattern of ice extent in December 2013 was similar overall to what was seen in 2010, except that 2010 had much less ice cover in Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay.”
There’s a nice wee chart there for you – average monthly Arctic sea ice extent December 1978 to 2013 – with what sure seems like a downward line all the way to me!
But sure what would they know???
Australian Met Office website: “2013 was the hottest year on record in Australia.”
I could go on but I am tired…
Sorry, the link – with the chart, on the left when you scroll down!
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
To say Ipsum that the IPCC says the planet has been cooling over the last 18 years is a bare-faced lie. Can you show me please a link to the where the IPCC says that?
And also you must not cheat – you have to take into account all warming, such as the recorded warming of the sea, which is taking up so much CO2 that it is becoming acid. Way to go, since the tiny sea creatures at the bottom of the food chain are shown not to be able to make their shells as it is so acidic, and aren’t phytoplankton the source of half of the world’s oxygen.
These folks say it better than me: http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-cooling-intermediate.htm
Here’s a good analysis of how the conservative media twist the truth – you can see what the IPCC really said in their summary for policy makers (hint: they did NOT say the earth is cooling!):
“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased.
Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850.”
http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/09/30/did-conservative-media-get-anything-right-about/196171
I don’t think Australia is cooling at any rate, since their Met Office says 2013 was their hottest year since records began!
The pace of ice melt is frightening.Whether we agree or not that Greenhouse Gases are the cause rising sea levels are a scientifically proven fact. It does not take science to see that rising sea levels spells trouble for all of us. When will we realise that man must work in harmony with the physical earth in order for both to live?
‘Well, that’s one use for it… The God Delusion stuck in a door on Athlunkard Street ‘
Would the caption have been the same had it been a Bible used as a door wedge?
Jaysus, you know the world is gone mad when you have atheists being sensitive over a book being slagged.
Can’t say I understand what it’s actually being used for there…
Maybe to block out god and his floods?
maybe there was only two books in the house,
The bible and the God delusion, and the owner said ‘best use the God delusion, just in case’;
know what i mean…………….
I think it’s really funny that it is The God Delusion, given all the flood stuff we have in the bible and the mad yokes still in this day and age saying flooding is some kind of retribution from on high!!!
Limerick Soviet: Doesn’t seem to have done them much good!
I’m pretty sure little island is in cork and the little island in Limerick that’s referred to in the article should be Kings Island!
Thar she blooows!
Horses been abused again .
Sad. But with architecture like this. There is no surprise.
fair play to your man with the sulky
No harm to Laura Hutton but didn’t they ask people to stay away from the coast with their cameras…
Do sandbags really stop floodwater?
That’s Limerick Ciiiitty!
ha ha ha ha i would hate to live in the west or anywhere else that isn’t a major city for that matter.
Your following some great twitter accounts!
Trollarama
Ha ha. That explains it…..easy to see what he spends most of his time doing!
I thought an article previously written on this site told everyone to stop going to flood sites for photography.. This is a bit of a contradiction, but still.. Entertaining..
Naw ,they said harbours and rocks not flood sites.
I’d say its safe to say that anywhere dangerous due to the conditions should be avoided was what they were implying..
j
Nice to see kids playing and not taking #stormselfies on their phones.
Hesco bastion sandbags as used by us military in afghanistan would be more suitable then the small ones you see being used around the country here
have your say