Further rain warnings issued for Ireland as clean up under way at flood-hit town

New rain warnings have been issued as communities hit by heavy flooding earlier in the week assess the damage.

Met Eireann has issued a Status Yellow rain warning for counties Dublin, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, and Waterford which will be in effect all day Thursday.

The Irish forecaster warned that heavy rain, combined with saturated grounds and high river levels, could lead to more flooding.

A Yellow-level rain warning has also been issued by the Met Office for Northern Ireland, from midnight until 6pm on Friday.

The warnings come as the clean up begins in areas hit by heavy flooding earlier in the week caused by Storm Chandra.

Heavy winds and torrential rain on Tuesday caused significant disruption across the island of Ireland, including power outages, flight cancellations and 300 school closures in Northern Ireland.

Rivers burst their banks, including the Slaney in Co Wexford and the Dodder in Dublin, with fallen trees reported across the island.

The scale of the flooding in some areas has heaped pressure on forecaster Met Eireann and the government over whether the warnings issued were sufficient.

Minister for Housing and Local Government James Browne said that information should not be “guarded” and he had asked Met Eireann to look at how they assess what level of weather warning is warranted.

The Wexford TD told South East Radio’s Morning Mix that Met Eireann needed to improve communications and said he was “really frustrated that some state agencies seem to think that it’s their duty to somehow withhold information”.

“We will be bringing Met Eireann in and say that, look, there needs to be an understanding here that information is not to be guarded, information is to be put out there and we need to do a much better job at communications,” he said.

“Also what we’ve asked Met Eireann to do is to look at how they bring these warnings – yellow, orange, red warnings – it’s based on a mathematical formula whereas in other countries they use the mathematical formula, but then they also make a judgment call and I there needs to be a greater use of that judgment call as well, I think in terms of being able to warn people of what is coming down the line.”

In Enniscorthy in Co Wexford, the Slaney flooded into homes on Island Road and businesses on Shannon Quay.

Glass bottle and food waste bins had been left out on Monday night, leaving the streets littered with broken glass and food on Wednesday after the water receded.

Slaney Search and Rescue crew members distributed food and water that had been donated to them to people stuck in their houses.

“One of the local establishments in the town dropped down food for the crew,” Shane O’Connor, chairman of Slaney Search and Rescue, told the Press Association.

“There was so much of it and we didn’t want it to go to waste, so we went to Island Road and knocked on doors and whoever was there we gave them food and supplies.”

He said there had been a “massive change overnight” and the water was “receding rapidly”, but the clean up would be complicated.

“The lads were coming in and wading through water and getting punctures in their dry suits because there was broken bottles in the water,” Mr O’Connor said.

He said some businesses had said it could take “three weeks” to recover after the flooding, and said that their own base could have been damaged by the floods.

“Our base is on a flood plain,” he said.

“So when a flood comes we have to get out what we can and then we’re gone, we don’t have a fancy base, we operate out of a shipping container.

“So we will have lost a lot of equipment.

“One piece of equipment we have is diving gear and comms to communicate with the diving team, and it cost 5,000 euro for that.

“If that box is on the ground, that could be ruined.

“We have been arguing with the council for years and years for a suitable base to be built.”