4,500 homes without water in Cork city

Flooding, ice and a drinking water outage caused chaos across Cork city and county today.

The big freeze of the last three weeks has given way to torrential downpours and gale force winds.

Up to 4,500 households in the city are reliving the drinking water nightmare of the November flood

disaster.

Northside homes have been without water for the past 24 hours. The outage has occurred because of burst water pipes and the council has crews working to identify and repair leaks. It is hoped water will be restored to those houses by 9am tomorrow.

Hundreds of more homes remain without water because of frozen pipes.

Temporary water standpipes have been set up at nine locations around the city to provide water to those in need.

Today the county was getting battered by around two inches of rain. People in Skibbereen were bracing themselves for a third deluge in less than two months.

Comdt Mick Doyle from Collins Barracks said up to 40 soldiers were in Skibbereen, delivering sandbags to parts of the town. Almost 2,000 sandbags were filled in Skibbereen by troops.

Army personnel also ferried more than 100 hospital staff including midwives, nurses, physicians and clerical staff to Cork University Hospital, and the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital yesterday, due to the treacherous road conditions.

This morning, cars were being pulled out of flooded waters at Four Mile Bridge outside Macroom.

Fallen trees and ice also caused problems for motorists, with roads in north and west Cork completely impassable.

Passengers faced delays at Cork Airport as gusting cross-winds grounded flights. There were reports of gales of more than 100mph.

The stormy conditions also left 1,500 homes in Bandon, Bantry and Dunmanway without power.

As the weather crisis continues, the city and county council were calling on people to conserve water. Due to a break in the public water main in the Raffeen area of Cork Harbour, hundreds of households in Upper Rochestown, Oldcourt, Rathanker and Ballyorban are without water.

There are also severe water shortages in Bantry and Allihies.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Cork County Council has also revealed that it spent €590,000 on salting and gritting roads in past month.

This story courtesy of the Evening Echo