Tidal flooding disrupts rush-hour traffic in Cork City

Advance warning signs were in place and some road lanes were closed for a time, affecting rush-hour commuters, but no property damage was reported.

The tidal flood alert remains in place until Sunday with high astronomical spring tides coinciding with a tidal surge to push tide levels higher than normal.

Meanwhile, Cork County Council says it has been engaging with Met Éireann for almost a year on getting more targeted weather warnings given the size of the county.

The talks began following last October's devastating flooding of Midleton during Storm Babet when a status orange weather alert was in place for Cork and Kerry.

Ireland has a three-tier weather warning system, with status yellow alerting to the possibility of localised dangers caused by not-unusual weather conditions; status orange alerts for when dangerous and/or disruptive weather is expected; and status red alerts for when the weather is expected to be extremely dangerous and disruptive.

During the most recent status orange alert, issued for Cork, Kerry, and Waterford on October 5, Bantry was hit by another severe flood.

During a similar alert a week earlier for Cork and Waterford, there was flooding in parts of west Waterford.

Fine Gael Senator Tim Lombard questioned whether a blanket warning system for a county the size of Cork is adequate anymore.

“In addition to the awful flooding in Bantry, the amount of rain that fell in some parts of West Cork on October 5 led to very dangerous flooding and driving conditions in many places,” he said.

“With over 65mm of rain in less than 12 hours, the rainfall was at red warning levels in some locations.

“Given how accurate weather forecasting is these days, it seems wrong that a ‘one size fits all’ county-wide warning is given.” 

 He said there was a similar situation in Midleton in October last year where the rainfall was far greater in the east Cork area than the rest of the county.

"I appreciate the impact of a red warning in terms of the economic impact it has, but perhaps there is merit in more localised warnings, including red warning if necessary to ensure that communities are adequately warned, have time to prepare, are protected and stay at home if necessary,” he said.

Met Éireann said it routinely reviews its weather warning process and any consideration of replacing blanket warnings for counties like Cork with more targeted warnings “would be part of wider ongoing discussions" with its colleagues who operate in emergency management in Ireland.