Towns under siege as fallout from deluge continues

BLOCKED roads, fallen trees along with flooded homes and farmland greeted the residents of west Cork and Kerry yesterday as continuing heavy rainfall took a grim toll on one of the worst-hit parts of the country.

Last night, the whole of west Cork was cut off from the city as Bandon became a town under siege, impregnable but for the most robust of vehicles. Even the local Garda station was reported to be under half a foot of water.

Flooding occurred not alone in Bandon but also on roads out of the town to Clonakilty, Crossbarry, and Kilbritain. In Cork city, the Sarsfield Road Roundabout was flooded, while in Tralee, the road at Ballymullen was closed for most of the day yesterday.

Senior engineers with Cork County Council reported that up to 54mm of rain had fallen in western parts of the county within a 24-hour period. “There has been a lot of rainfall over the past couple of weeks,” said engineer Niall O’Mahony, whose council office in Skibbereen operates the local meteorological station on behalf of the Met Office. “The land is already saturated and the rivers are swollen, so any further rainfall will havea bad effect as there is no retention.”

Fellow council engineer Ted Murphy said the removal of fences from farms east from Rosscarbery to Timoleague had made matters worse. “Some water that would have been retained by ditches is now hitting the roads. Everything that’s falling is just running off the land,” he explained.

Mr Murphy said at least 20 homes in Dunmanway were flooded and that a number of roads were flooded in Skibbereen with the River Illen rising at a rate of one foot an hour since 5am yesterday.

“The Bandon River has also risen dramatically and gale force winds are predicted for the next few days. Our advice is if you don’t need to travel by road there is no point in risking life and limb,” he said.

Emergency services had to rescue a man from his car on the road between Toom’s bridge and Inchigeela early yesterday, while a woman who was trapped in her vehicle at Baurleigh, in Kilbrittain, also had to be rescued.

Severe flooding hit approach roads to Bandon, Clonakilty, Dunmanway and Macroom.

Cork County Council Senator Michael McCarthy said the situation was set to get worse.

“Although the tide is out in Clonakilty the bay is full at the moment, and severe flooding is expected,” he said. “Bandon is also particularly bad as the river has burst its banks, and all approach roads to towns such as Skibbereen and Dunmanway are also under flood.”

Nearer Cork city, among businesses affected was the Water Rock House Hotel outside Midleton.

“The problem is that the stream underneath disappears under the giant rock which gives its name to the area. Over recent years more water has been diverted into that stream so now there is nowhere for it to go. We have hired pumps and we have sand bags ready but the water is still rising.”

Mr O’Driscoll said the situation is reminiscent of floods 14 years ago.

“In 1995 the same thing happened and it did great damage. We were closed for 12 weeks. We are bailing water at the door at the moment. We could not even think of opening. I told the staff that our job today was not cooking. Our job today was to try and save our jobs.”