LOCALISED FLASH flooding occurred across Ennis Town on Thursday evening.
A combination of torrential rain, already saturated ground conditions and blocked gullies led to sudden flash floods shortly before 5pm in the county town impacting on businesses, home owners and motorists in rush hour traffic.
Areas which were particularly impacted included the Turnpike, Carmody Street and the Kilrush Rd/Market junction in Ennis. A large section of The Temple Gate car park was also covered in water.
Crews from the Ennis Municipal District were alerted to the flooding and acted to relieve some of the pressure.
Mark Dunphy of WeathÉire told The Clare Echo localised flooding in Ennis followed torrential rainfall from a squall line, a narrow but intense band of thunderstorms that formed ahead of a cold front moving northeast across Clare.
He added that the system brought heavy rain and briefly strong winds to the wider Ennis area between 4.40pm and 4.50pm. “The intense nature of the downpour over a short period of time likely overwhelmed gullies and drains, many of which were blocked by fallen leaves,” Dunphy stated.
“Most soils in Co Clare are either saturated or waterlogged, causing any rainfall to run off across the surface, which would have contributed to localised flooding in Ennis today”, he flagged.
In a statement to The Clare Echo, a spokesperson for Clare County Council remarked, “unprecedented rainfall occurred in Ennis during a short time frame”. The Council calculated that an approximate 10mm of rain fell within an hour “coinciding with rush hour traffic”. The spokesperson outlined, “Rainfall events of this scale at this time of year can be especially problematic due to fallen leaves.
“To offset this Ennis Municipal District engages the services of an additional road sweeper to assist with the removal of leaves and clearing of drains during the autumn months. This additional sweeper has been active for the past four weeks, supplementing the work of our two existing road sweepers. A routine maintenance schedule is in place for clearing gullies and other drainage infrastructure. Despite these measures, the combination of heavy rainfall and fallen leaves led to some localised spot flooding in Ennis,” the spokesperson added. “The majority of the flooding was short-lived and receded very quickly,” the statement continued.
Turnpike is part of the routine maintenance schedule with gullies “completely cleaned within the last three weeks”.
