Emergency services remained in Leitrim village overnight after a "localised tornado" caused substantial damage.
High winds tore through the village at around 12:30pm yesterday, leaving cars, buildings, boats, and trees badly damaged.
Gardaí said the road through the village would be closed for the evening.
"Everything just blew up into the air."
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) December 10, 2023
Willie Donnellan is a photographer with the Leitrim Observer. He was in his home in Leitrim village when he heard a loud bang. He says within 30 seconds a tornado had flattened trees, damaged houses, boats and cars | https://t.co/vpnbgI36EW pic.twitter.com/Rg9XipsWWA
Emergency services were working on part of the Main Street where a number of premises were damaged.
There were no reports of serious injuries, although it is understood one man received treatment for cuts to his head after wooden planks landed on his car windscreen.
Leitrim village is on the main road from Carrick-on-Shannon to Drumshanbo, and to Keadue in Co Roscommon.
Diversions were in place for traffic intending to travel through the village.
This video shared on Snapchat shows rotation which supports the reports of a Tornado in Leitrim Village today. Hoping everyone is OK after this shocking event. pic.twitter.com/iYShm8PW15
— Carlow Weather (@CarlowWeather) December 10, 2023
Storm Fergus brought strong winds and heavy rain to the west coast.
Seamus Gibbons, who runs the Electric Bike Trails in the village, said that the weather event happened in the space of about two minutes, and added that it was incredible luck that nobody was killed.
He said: "It cut right through, it went straight through one house and thankfully nobody was there. The roof was shredded.
"Every car on the street was damaged, one plank went right through one of them.
"There is damage out the back of my businesses, there were sheds there before and I don't know where they are now.
"There's trees that have been there for 200-300 years that were completely shredded.
"It just happened in two minutes and that was it. The fire brigade came very quickly, and two local paramedics came straight out to help too," said Mr Gibbons.
Met Éireann said Storm Fergus brought conditions which meant there could have been tornadoes in some areas as it passed over the country.
Meteorologist Mark Bowe said: "Just ahead of the actual low pressure centre itself, there were a couple of lightning strikes and there was a very active thunderstorm cell, just ahead of the main low itself, and this was very active and can produce small localised tornadoes, so it is certainly possible to happen."
Met Éireann said there are on average around 10 tornadoes in Ireland a year but many are not observed as they are highly localised, affecting a small area, and last for just a few minutes.
Visiting the scene yesterday evening, local Fine Gael TD Frank Feighan said he wanted to offer support to those who suffered loss and to thank the emergency services for their work in cleaning up the debris.
"Thank goodness there were no serious injuries" he said.
As darkness fell, heavy rain was hampering the clean-up at the affected premises.
Additional reporting: Carole Coleman
