Rain Rain (won’t) go away

Thomastown, County Kilkenny was just one of many communities hard hit by Storm Frank. RollingNews.ie photo.

By Irish Echo Staff

At this rate they will run out of names.

In years past, Irish people would remember storms because of particular effects, usually in their immediate home areas.

Now storms come with names attached, and they are just coming and coming.

Storms Desmond, Eva and Frank have battered Ireland in recent weeks and the next named watery cyclone is Gertrude.

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And it would appear that more names will have to be dug up as Met Eireann, the Irish Meteorological Service, has warned that foul weather looks like being the norm for the next three weeks at least.

Flood defenses and emergency personnel will be pushed to breaking point as the country braces itself for another onslaught, the Irish Independent reported today.

“The aftermath of Storm Frank has left communities around the country without power, with many submerged in flood water and braced for worse to come,” the report stated.

The Irish Times reported that hundreds of homes and businesses throughout Ireland have been left flooded “following what has been the wettest December on record.”

Met Eireann has stated that rainfall amounts arising from winter storms such as Desmond and Frank, have smashed half century records around the country.

Cork alone has experienced three times its average rainfall for the last month, reported the Times.

It added that following a 7 centimeter increase over the last 48 hours, the River Shannon in Athlone is now 10 centimeters above its previous peak recorded after Storm Desmond.

“There has been an 11cm rise in Limerick city over the same period, and a 9cm rise upstream at Lough Derg with significant increases in water levels noted in the Bandon, Erne, Slaney, Suir and Boyne rivers,” the report said.

The storms and their aftermath have seen government ministers and Taoiseach Enda Kenny touring badly flooded areas.

Tanaiste Joan Burton got more than she bargained for when she fell out of a canoe, but luckily the water wasn’t too deep.
What is deep and deepening, apart from low pressure weather systems, is the criticism from opposition politicians that the government has been too slow to respond to the widespread disruption and devastation that has left December, 2015 a month that has blown the record books away.

 

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