Mother nature gave all she had to North Cork over the Christmas period. First there were storms with heavy rain and gale force winds to contend with, then frost with resultant icy road conditions which caused a spate of collisions on roads, before reverting to stormy conditions once again.
Cork County Council’s Fermoy area office had a large number of call outs and reported major disruption as a result of the storms. However, there were no major damage reports over the Christmas period, in spite of the large number of trees which were downed by the high winds.
Fermoy Fire Brigade was called to clear a number of fallen trees which were blocking roads. Mitchelstown Fire Brigade were also called out to deal with a number of trees which were downed around Ballybeg, Ballindangan, Ballylanders, Araglin and other areas around the town. It was also reported that nine trees were down on the Mallow to Mitchelstown road.
Conna and Knockanore were without power for a time. Power was out in Kingston College, Mitchelstown on Stephen’s Day, with some areas around Kilworth also suffering temporary black-outs on St Stephen’s night. With the dangerously high winds which were present, there were fears that some roof structures might be in danger of damage.
TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS
On Christmas Day and again on St. Stephen’s Day ice on roads and freezing fog were a problem for motorists around Mitchelstown, Fermoy and Rathcormac with a number of accidents reported.
The M8 was reduced to one lane southbound between Junctions 11 and 12 following an accident on Christmas morning. Black ice was blamed for that crash as well as others at Castlelyons and Glocca Maura. Thankfully, no serious injuries were reported.
Heavy cross-winds during the storms also made for hazardous driving conditions on the motorway at times.
In all, Fermoy Gardai had to deal with 12 road traffic accidents between Saturday, December 21 and Thursday, December 26, largely due to the weather conditions. Mostly it was just material damage to vehicles that was sustained.
Mallow town was also seriously hit by flooding and the Park Road was closed and deemed to be impasssable on Monday, December 30 due to flooding, while the racecourse was also badly hit.
With further stormy conditions forecast over the New Year period, householders were being reminded to check the stability of any trees on their property and motorists were being advised to take extra care while driving.
