Widespread power outages and flooding reported across County Roscommon

Several roads in County Roscommon are under flooding this morning and dozens of homes are without power as Storm Bert sweeps through.

Some of the worst affected roads include the Cloonfower to Ballinlough road, which is completely impassable, the main Ballinlough to Castlerea Road is passable but extreme caution is advised as there is flooding on the road on both sides of the carriage way; the Castleplunkett to Castlerea road is also heavily flooded. There is also a large flood on the N5 east of Strokestown.

There are also reports of flooding around Frenchpark, Ballinlough, Boyle, Roscommon Town and several areas of South Roscommon.

Several businesses in Boyle town remained closed for a couple of hours this morning due to a power outage. While power has been restored to much of the town centre over 400 premises in the Boyle area remain without power and dozens more are affected in the Arigna area.

Earlier this morning the train from Boyle to Dublin was delayed for several hours due to flooding on the line, but the line has since re-opened. However, delays on services throughout the day are expected.

According to the ESB high winds associated with Storm Bert have led to power outages impacting thousands of homes, farms and businesses overnight, predominantly in counties in the west and northwest. Crews are mobilised in impacted areas and responding to faults where it is safe to do so.

With Met Éireann forecasting Storm Bert to dominate our weather through the weekend, the ESB says that further power outages can be expected.