Storm Desmond moves on; leaves floods in wake

Storm Desmond has left the country and is sweeping eastwards across the Irish Sea to northern England and Scotland.

Storm Desmond moves on; leaves floods in wake

Storm Desmond has left the country and is sweeping eastwards across the Irish Sea to northern England and Scotland.

The wind and rain wreaked havoc on most of the country over the past 48 hours leaving roads blocked and up to 12,000 homes without power.

Among the worst hit areas was Bandon in Co Cork where the river measured 3.5m, well above the severe warning mark on a gauge at a bridge in the town.

The town centre, which has been waiting for new defences since the last flood in 2009, was under at least one foot of water.

Towns, cities and counties along the west coast bore the brunt of Desmond – the fourth named storm of the winter season – with flooding also reported in parts of Donegal, Crossmolina, Co Mayo, Kenmare, Co Kerry, among other areas.

Travel services were also hit at the height of the storm with a number of flights and ferry sailings cancelled or postponed but services are expected to run as normal today.

Met Éireann has now lifted all five of its weather warnings, and forecaster John Eagleton said it was a very different story out there this morning.

"It's a much quieter day today…It will be brighter, dry and will be feeling a little bit fresher," he said.

"It will certainly be a contrasting day to what we had over the rest of the weekend."

However, he said there was another period of wet and windy weather on the way later tonight and tomorrow, but this was not expected to reach storm category.

So far today Irish Ferries has cancelled two services but Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Farranfore Airports are expected to be fully operational. Almost all rail services are operating normally, with the exception of an area of localised flooding between Dromod and Longford.

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A big clean-up is now underway after Storm Desmond dumped huge volumes of water and caused devastating flooding in many parts of the country.

Met Éireann’s highest level red warning ended at 3am as the gale force winds and incessant and heavy rainfall abated more than a day after the Atlantic system began to move in.

Elsewhere, several hundred homes in parts of Mayo and Kerry spent last night with no power.

In some of the hardest hit regions in Cork and Kerry councils called in the Army to help put in makeshift flood defences.

A 20-strong platoon and two big wheeled vehicles were deployed to Bandon while others were dispatched to Kenmare, Tralee and Bantry and worked with local Health Service Executive medical teams to get to emergencies in the floods.

While a separate weather system is expected to move in overnight into Monday, Met Eireann has forecast a a bright and mostly dry day, with sunny spells and just a few isolated showers today.

Forecasters had warned that Desmond was carrying huge levels of rainfall.

Almost 20 travel warnings were in place across parts of Mayo and Galway with many roads impassable including the N59 between Leenane and Westport.

In Donegal, which also had a number of alerts out for motorists, the bridge after the rivers Finn and Foyle meet in Lifford was closed due to high water levels, while a few miles away in Clady, Co Tyrone the town bridge over the Finn was also closed to traffic.

Irish Rail was forced to close its Dublin-Sligo line from Longford to Dromod because of flooding.

In Monaghan, drivers were urged to take extreme care on the N2 while motorway bosses closed one lane of the M6 eastbound at Loughrea for several hours this morning.

Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland an elderly man had to be rescued from his home in Clady on Saturday night with an emergency team using a digger to get to the property after the Finn burst its banks over a huge area.

The village and nearby Castlefin were among the worst affected in the border region. And in Larne, Co Antrim, Dunluce Street was closed after part of the roof of a building was damaged.

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