Thousands left without power and roads flooded after Storm Bert
There has been major flooding in Killybegs, Co Donegal, while flooding was also reported in Cork, Galway and Limerick.
Several areas have been hit by flooding and power cuts after Storm Bert swept across the island of Ireland overnight on Friday.
The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) said that high winds had caused power outages for 60,000 customers at the height of the outage and their teams were now working to restore supply.
Status red rain warnings were in place for Cork and Galway until 10am on Saturday, with an orange alert for rain in place for counties Waterford, Kerry, Clare, Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim.
A Yellow alert for wind and rain warnings was in place for most counties until midday on Saturday, but another Status Yellow warning will kick in from 5pm until 2am on Sunday for six counties.
Those are Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow.
Bridge Street in Killybegs, Co Donegal, has been badly flooded after the storm and flooding incidents have also been reported in Galway, Limerick and Cork.
Rebecca Mullen of The Flour House bakery in Riverstick, Co Cork, said that Storm Babet flooded the bakery last October, and the bakery had flooded again after Storm Bert.
They had received grants from the Red Cross to help them through the last flood where a lot of damage was done.
“Without those grants we really wouldn’t have a business today, it’s just really important that small businesses survive weather systems,” she told the PA news agency.
“Saturday is one of our busiest days, we’ve already had to cancel a market because of the weather system, so now we’ve obviously had to shut the shop today, so we’ll be losing money there.
“I’ve done deliveries of cakes today where I can to the people who have ordered, but now it’s the clean up, its the cost of getting the staff back in, extra hours, working out what is salvageable and what isn’t.”
She said small businesses are already struggling because of rising costs such as the 13.5% VAT rate and staff pay.
“Every day counts. You can’t miss a day’s trade. I think that’s what’s going to really hurt us. Every single piece of coinage is required to get us through.”
In Northern Ireland, a yellow alert for rain and snow was in place across the region from midnight until 11am on Saturday, while a wind warning is in place until Saturday evening.
Police urged motorists to take extra care on a number of roads in the Newtownards area because of the effect of poor weather conditions.
It said that a fallen tree on the Belfast Road and on the Springvale Road, between Ballyhalbert and Ballywalter, has blocked both lanes.
The PSNI said a shed roof has been blown onto the Ballyquinn Road, Dungiven, and is causing an obstruction, and there is a heavy build-up of traffic in the Dunhill Road area of Coleraine because of snow.
