Newry swamped by floods a second time as country braces for Storm Ciarán

Parts of Newry in Co Down have been swamped by floodwater for a second time as the city’s canal burst its banks overnight.

Dozens of businesses were engulfed in the first floods on Tuesday, with widespread damage caused to buildings, furnishings and stock.

Thousands of sandbags which had been stacked along some business shopfronts appeared to make little difference as the canal breached walls and rushed down towards Newry’s Sugar Island, which was also badly affected yesterday.

Much of the country is bracing itself for a fresh bout of wind and rain with Storm Ciaran bringing yellow alerts for a number of counties.

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Large parts of Louth were particularly affected on Tuesday and Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney has promised to respond quickly with financial help for businesses hit by flooding along the east coast, adding that there could be an incorporeal Cabinet meeting this week to approve the funding. Speaking in Seoul, where he is on a trade mission to South Korea with the Taoiseach and two other ministers, Mr Coveney described the last few weeks of flooding in Ireland as horrific.

“We don’t have a statutory flood support scheme in place in a way that I can simply sign off on that. I need to go back to government to get approval to extend the scheme that we have announced, for example, for towns in Cork and west Waterford to the east coast. But certainly the government will respond quickly on that and I’ve already talked to my colleagues about putting that together,” he said.

Mr Coveney said that householders did not have to wait for the government to act but could seek help from community welfare officers who can offer financial support quickly.

“They do that on a case by case basis, depending on the pressures that families and individuals are under because of flooding in their homes. That response can happen immediately,” he said.

“When businesses have been flooded, the government can respond by making a government decision to open a flood relief scheme which works through the Red Cross. And the Red Cross will be able to get initial payments to companies very quickly once the government gives approval for that scheme. That’s an initial €5,000 or €10,000 if it’s the enhanced scheme. And then following that, there’s an assessment that could take a number of weeks to give the top up payments to support businesses on the basis of the assessed losses of that business due to flooding.”

Met Éireann has issued a status yellow warning for Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, Cork, Waterford and warned that “further rainfall associated with Storm Ciarán, combined with saturated ground conditions and high river levels, may lead to flooding”. In addition there is a status yellow wind alert warning for Clare, Kerry, Galway and a rain warning for Kerry which may cause localised flooding.

Temperatures remain high today of between 10 to 13 degrees but falling to 2 degrees overnight. Met Éireann said that the unsettled conditions are likely to remain through the week and into the weekend.

Parts of the UK will be under amber alerts on Thursday morning. Amber warnings are in place for the entire south coast of England and parts of Pembrokeshire on Thursday when Storm Ciaran is due to hit, together with further yellow rain warnings.

The storm has already caused flooding in Northern Ireland, where a yellow rain warning from the Met Office is in place until 9am on Wednesday.

A similar notice has been issued for parts of southwest, central and eastern Scotland from 3am to 3pm and in southern parts of England and Wales from 6pm on Wednesday until the end of Thursday.

Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Dan Suri said a cold front would bring bursts of heavy rain and coastal gusts of 60 to 70mph along the south coast on Wednesday.

He said: “Wind and rain warnings associated with Storm Ciaran are in force from Wednesday night onwards into Friday.

“As well as strong winds, this deep low pressure system will bring heavy rain to many parts of the UK.

“Much of southern England and south Wales, as well as parts of north Wales, northeast England, southeast Scotland and perhaps the east of Northern Ireland look to see the wettest conditions between Wednesday evening and Friday morning.”

He said 20 to 25mm of rain may fall in many places with 40 to 60mm possible over higher ground. - PA