Services are returning to normal around the country as flood waters slowly subside. Dublin Corporation is advising people who were forced to leave their homes in the homes in the Drumcondra and Botanic Avenue area to return to their homes.
The Council is also operating two advice centres in Drumcondra and Ballybough and are providing residents with information on the Government's Flood Relief Scheme and advice about lodging insurance claims.
Flood waters are slowly clearing in the east of the country and many roads have reopened. Met Éireann has forecast a generally dry and clear night. Widespread frost has been predicted tonight but should remain dry.
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Residents of Little Pace in Clonee
are taken from their houses by Army and Fire men during today's extensive flooding. Photo: Alan Betson. |
Traffic moved reasonably well on the M50 yesterday evening but many roads in north county Dublin remained impassable. Waters on the N3 and N7 have begun to subside.
All rail services ran yesterday though there were delays around Maynooth and the Dublin-Sligo line. DART services between Malahide to Howth junction reopened earlier Friday, as did the rail link between Gorey and Enniscorthy.
A spokesman for Met Éireann said a further 10 to 15 millimetres of rain is expected overnight. Ninety millimetres of rain have fallen in Dublin since Wednesday evening, more than the average monthly total.
The rest of the weekend is expected to be drier and colder, allowing some respite to some of the worst flood-stricken areas of counties Dublin, Kildare, Wexford, Wicklow and Meath.
The River Tolka burst its banks again yesterday evening leading to the evacuation of 100 people in the Clonliffe Road area.
Many houses and several commercial properties in Co Wexford were also damaged.
Several shops and houses in Arklow, Co Wicklow, were also hit by flooding. The Brook, Lower Main Street and Tinahask on the southside, and Dublin Road and Worsborough Terrace on the northside were among the areas affected.
Labour's Mr Joe Costello said Dublin's northside was in the middle of a natural disaster and called on the Government to implement swift emergency measures.
"Roads are closed, families have been evacuated from their homes, and houses are up to several feet in water. The situation is ten times worse than when the Tolka burst its banks in 1954," he said.
Former taoiseach, Mr John Bruton, who lives in one of the worst affected places, Dunboyne, Co Meath, this evening called for extra funding to made available to Meath County Council to help the relief effort.
He said planning permissions had exacerbated the situation for a town susceptible to flooding and that while a drainage scheme for the Tolka Basin was planned, work had not yet begun.
"The entire village is cut off by flooding. The Red Cross do not know how much money they will have available to relieve the distress in the medium term, but in the short-term people in Dunboyne have literally nowhere to go," he said.
He was speaking after the Office of Public Works announced a humanitarian aid programme to be administered by the Red Cross.
In Wicklow, south of Glen of the Downs a small landslide has now been cleared from the N11, and a river has burst its banks at Kilcoole, Co Wicklow.
In Kildare, the Clane-Celbridge road is impassable as is the village of Straffin. There is also bad flooding on the N7 on the Monstereven side of Kildare town.