NEWLY-CROWNED CORK senior hurling champions Sarsfields hailed the “heroism” of its members on Wednesday as Storm Babet wreaked havoc on the club.

The club’s home town of Glanmire was among the areas hit by heavy rainfall and flooding, described by Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr Frank O’Flynn, as “unprecedented”.

Sarsfields, who won their first county crown in nine years on Sunday with a two-point win against Midleton, shared images of their flooded pitch on social media.

They revealed that the flooding was caused in part by a decision taken to open two gates so as to limit damage to their club house and relieve flooding in the surrounding community.

“We will be forever proud of our senior team on Sunday and today, Sars Hurling Club experienced heroism in the form of our pitch committee and volunteers,” a post on Facebook read.

“Although we wanted to ensure we could limit the damage to the club house, we made the decision to open the two large gates (behind the bar area and at the end of the pitch).

“As a result, our main pitch essentially became a flood plain in order to relieve the flooding to the immediate Riverstown area, Orchard Manor and surrounding businesses.

“We won a county, lost a pitch, but hopefully saved a part of the Glanmire community.”

A Status Orange rain warning was in place across five counties on Wednesday — Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow.

More than 100 properties in Midleton in east Cork were estimated to be flooded, with members of the Defence Forces deployed to the town which was left “impassable”, while areas and roads in west Waterford also suffered significant flooding.

– With additional reporting by TheJournal.ie team