Carlow & Kilkenny again largely escape worst of Storm Francis

Severe flooding has been reported in parts of the country after Storm Francis hit overnight with hundreds of homes and businesses without power.

Parts of Cork including Bantry and Bandon have been badly affected by the second storm in as many weeks. While locally there are power outages in Ballyhale & Baltinglass, between them affecting over 300 ESB customers.

While KCLR Breakfast listeners tell us that parts of both counties have been hit by flooding – most notably on the Kilkenny side of Freshford, where a car’s hit a ditch, and also between Callan & Kilmanagh.

A status orange rain warning’s in place across Wexford & Waterford as well as Connacht, Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Cork and Kerry with up to 60 millimetres of rain possible by 5pm this evening.

A similar status yellow alert in place for the rest of the country – while a status yellow wind warning’s in effect for the south and east.

Alan O’Reilly from Carlow Weather says conditions will be bad throughout the day noting “The heaviest of rain overnight is moving north now but unfortunately as Storm Francis pulls through winds will increase through this morning & into this afternoon in the southern half of the country with some very strong & damaging gusts”.

He adds “Wind speeds of up to 110 km per hour are possible especially on coastal areas & along high ground”.