In pictures: The clean-up begins in Midleton after Storm Babet

Residents and business owners in Midleton, Co Cork continued the work of clearing up the damage caused by storm-related flooding on Thursday as Leo Varadkar said the Government would provide funding required to help people over the financial loss involved.

Storm Babet brought a month’s worth of rainfall to the area in just a day, causing roads in and around the town as well as many buildings to become badly flooded.

Workers from Cork County Council along with members of the Cork County Fire Service, An Garda Síochána and several other agencies, NGOs and groups of volunteers spent the day helping to restore services and clear the debris.

Business owners, some of them without flood insurance, expressed concern about their ability to reopen their businesses but one, Therese Savage, manager of Midleton’s Hyde Children’s Fashions, said the community was strong and would work together to come through the crisis.

During a visit to see the damage for himself, Leo Varadkar said the support people needed to get back on their feet would be provided.

“The Government is here to help,” he said. “We understand how severely affected large parts of Waterford and Cork and other parts of the south coast have been. We are not just here to express solidarity. We are here to say that the emergency services and the public services are here for the immediate clean up and then in the medium term we will put the financial aid in place so the families and businesses can recover and the infrastructure is fully repaired.”

In the meantime, some roads in the area remained impassable on Thursday afternoon and there was ongoing disruption to public transport.