Damage caused by unexpectedly heavy rainfall in the Gorey area of Wexford could cost “hundreds of thousands of euro” to repair, the director of services with Wexford County Council has said.
Mr Hoare said 16 roads were flooded, five of which were blocked, when 20mm of rain per hour fell for a number of hours on Thursday. All roads were open as of Friday morning, except one, which he hoped would reopen later in the day.
The heavy rain led to four business premises and two homes experiencing flooding, he said.
The heavy rain, which was confined to the Gorey area, had not been expected to be as bad as it was, Mr Hoare told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.
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“It was an unusual event, but there have been a number of events like this happening this year. It is very hard to predict events like that.” So far this year there have been four such events, with €5 million spent on repairing roads and bridges damaged in flooding last Christmas, he said.
Throughout Thursday evening emergency crews and up to 10 fire tenders, including two from Wicklow, were working to try and relieve the worst affected areas, a statement from the council said.
Gardaí issued a traffic alert for some roads in the county. The M11 between Junction 22 and Junction 23 were closed in both directions due to flooding.
Photos on social media showed cars partly submerged in inches of water on some roads in the county after the severe flooding.
