Farmers in the southeast of the country have been left with no long-term effects after a status orange wind and rain warning forecast over the weekend.

Met Éireann issued a medium-level rain warning for Cork and Waterford, with heavy rain and thundery downpours expected.

Farms situated on the River Nire experienced major flooding, which led to damage to fields, fencing and roadways.

However, speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Irish Farmers’ Association Waterford chair John Heffernan said local farmers are prepared for these weather events.

“A lot of farmers left their stock in yesterday [Sunday 30 September] and again last night. But today’s a lovely day and everything has cleared up nice and grand. No long-term effects.

"It’s absolutely extraordinary the way, around here, you can see where all the debris is up in the ditches where the water was six or seven foot deep and, today, there wasn’t one drop of that water left there. That’s just the nature of the Nire River.

“It something the locals are aware of, the ones who have always lived here. They know what they are dealing with.”

Power outages

It is also understood that some towns in Cork and Waterford were hit with power outages, with almost 200 customers in the two counties without electricity until 4pm on Monday 30 September.

In addition, there were reports of some felled trees and debris which led to temporary road closures.

Cork West IFA chair Tadhg Healy said the power outages in the area were not severe.

“It was very windy, with some local trees down. The power flicked off early in the morning - it was just off and on again. Thankfully, there was no major structural damage.”

Rain

According to Met Éireann, Cork Airport experienced 51.3mm of rainfall on Sunday 29 September and wind gusts as strong as 85km/h.

Meanwhile, Roches Point, Co Cork and, Johnstown Castle, Co Waterford, had 29mm and 31.1mm of rainfall respectively, but the Cork-based weather station also had wind gusts of up to 89km/h.

Cork central IFA chair Mathew Hurley added that the rainfall will have no lasting damage to the farmland.

“We had a lot of rain, but it isn’t what I call bad rain. It was raining heavy all day, but there were no real deluges in it.”