'Hundreds of thousands' of euro may be needed to repair damage caused by flooding in Gorey 

According to the council, there was heavy flooding in Gorey, Courtown and surrounding areas, following heavy rainfall this evening. Picture: Andy Gibson

It could cost “hundreds of thousands” of euro to repair the damage caused by unexpectedly heavy rainfall in Wexford on Thursday, the director of services with Wexford County Council has said.

Heavy flooding caused by the rainfall impact homes and businesses as well as causing traffic chaos in Gorey.

Eamon Hoare said 16 roads were flooded, five of which were completely blocked when 20mm of rain per hour fell for a number of hours. All roads are now open, except one, which he hoped would reopen within a few hours.

The heavy rain led to four business premises and two homes experiencing flooding and there will be damage to roads, he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

The rain, which was contained to the Gorey area, had not been expected to be as bad as it was, said Mr Hoare.

“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 €5m spent on repairing roads and bridges damaged in flooding last Christmas, he said.

Fire and road crews were dispatched by the local authority yesterday to deal with spot flooding incidents and blocked drains.

Local bus services were also impacted, but services were returning to normal after 7.30pm. 

Buses leaving Gorey for Dublin could not do so for some time, because of the flooding.

One Twitter user tweeted that she had been stuck on a bus for three hours due to the flooding.

Hour 3 of being stuck in Wexford bus. Whole motorway is flooded and there is a car stuck in the middle of some very deep water 🙏

— Steamed (@Tw1tterhaams) November 3, 2022

Local senator Malcolm Byrne says this is the latest in a series of flooding problems in the county this year.

"There can be no doubt that the climate is changing and we have got to look at addressing that," he said.

"It has very real world implications. It means we are seeing a lot of roads being flooded, we are seeing potential damage to roads, paths and property.

"It does have an impact on people trying to get around the area."

A similar torrential downpour hit Cork City last month when some 50mm of rain was dumped on the city in just a few hours — nearly four times the 15mm predicted in the yellow rainfall warning which was in place.

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