A monument to state inaction seen every day

A year on, Cork is still wide open to another disaster, says Eoin English.

THERE are dozens of tales of hardship, and countless tales of anger and frustration. But the story of the late Leonard Harvey is the most tragic.

As victims of last November’s flood which devastated Cork city gather this morning to mark the first anniversary of the city’s worst flood in living memory, they will remember Leonard in a special way, and vow, in his memory, to continue their fight for answers about what caused the flood, and to hold to account those responsible.

Leonard, 63, lived at Patrick Hanley Buildings in the city’s tight-knit Middle Parish area. His local authority home was one of dozens in the historic city centre community which were swamped in the flood.

Leonard suffered from health problems, which were under control while he lived at home.

But he was one of several people who were relocated to temporary accommodation after the flood.

He had to catch a bus to visit his doctor every day during his five-week relocation.

Leonard was found collapsed at home within days of his return. Despite the efforts of the community nurses who found him, he died.

Neighbours and close friends are convinced that his death is linked to the flood disaster.

They have spent the last year fighting with insurance companies and trying to rebuild their lives. They have spent the last year trying to establish what happened and why.

An Oireachtas Committee’s recommendation that a public inquiry be held offered them hope.

But a year on, they are still no closer to the answers.

Standing as a monument to state inaction and indifference to their plight, is a mound of rotting sandbags, just a few hundred yards from where Leonard lived, which were used to plug a 90-metre flood breach in the Grenville Quay walls.

Weeds are sprouting from the mound while anxious residents await the start of repair works, pencilled in to start early next year, and due for completion within six months.

They worry when it rains. They worry when flood alerts are issued. They have been hit with massive hikes in insurance premiums, and some can’t get insurance cover at all.

What happened that night is well documented. The river Lee burst its banks late on November 19 after the ESB took the decision to release millions of tonnes of water from the Inniscarra dam, 12km west of the city.

The flood that swept down the valley struck the city without warning. The scale of the damage was unprecedented.

* Up to €141 million worth of damage was done to property.

* The city’s main water treatment plant was swamped, leaving half the city’s population without water for a week.

* The Mercy University Hospital came within minutes of a full evacuation and was only kept open with the support of the army.

* University College Cork cancelling lectures for a week. A third of its 80-acre campus was under water, 29 buildings were damaged.

* Some 2,000 third-level students evacuated from their flooded accommodation.

* The five-star Kingsley Hotel closed. It has yet to reopen.

* Cork County Council’s administrative headquarters was closed for a week.

* The southern region’s biggest courthouse closed and dozens of schools were left without water.

* The army was deployed to deliver millions of litres of water to the elderly and infirm, and naval vessels docked at the Port of Cork’s city quays to provide support.

Grenville Place was among stricken areas visited by the Environment Minister John Gormley after the flood. Photo opportunities were organised, sound bites were dished out, and pledges were made.

The Office of Public Works (OPW), which has responsibility for flood protection, launched its Lee Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management Study (CFRAMS) in February.

But its launch sparked controversy when it ruled out on cost grounds a €100 million flood protection scheme for the city, recommending instead a smaller scale two-pronged approach to minimise flooding.

The study also suggested changes to the way the ESB manages its Inniscarra and Carrigadrohid dams, to work with small-scale flood defences in downstream zones. And it called for the establishment of a flood warning system for 90% of the Lee catchment area.

The downstream works are not likely to start until 2012, delaying major changes in the operation of the ESB’s dams.

Meanwhile, the Oireachtas Committee, when investigating the state’s response to last winter’s severe weather, recommended that the Government should oversee and sponsor an independent technical and engineering review of the management of the ESB’s hydroelectric schemes to ascertain whether they should continue to operate under the ESB’s control.

The city’s flood victims have repeatedly called for the public inquiry. But during a visit to Cork last month, Taoiseach Brian Cowen ruled it out while other reports are still being compiled by the OPW and government departments.

So 12 months on, those worst affected are still no closer to understanding who was responsible, and there is little evidence that anything has changed, fuelling fears that it could happen again.

Repair work has yet to start on the Grenville Place quay walls, there are no flood defences in place, there are concerns about the effectiveness of flood warnings, and the city doesn’t have the capacity to store sandbags.

NUI Galway geographer and climate change expert Kieran Hickey summed up the view of hundreds of residents at the launch last month of his book, Deluge: Ireland’s Weather Disasters 2009-2010, when he said the Government has done “nothing of significance” to prepare for another weather disaster.

Community activist Barry Keane, who has been campaigning for flood victims for the past year, agrees, and pointed to what he calls “strange priorities”.

Flood defences are being constructed in Clonmel [population 22,000] at a rate of 15-metres a day, just 25 metres from OPW Minister Martin Mansergh’s office.

This is taking place while Cork city [population 250,000] has to wait until 2012 before work on flood defences will even start.

Mr Keane has also, in recent days, read the ESB’s own report into the Cork flood disaster, and said key questions remain unanswered.

“The ESB knew that Cork was going to suffer a major flood four hours before it struck the city. Yet people were allowed to go to bed without any proper warning,” he said.

“This was, and remains, outrageous. From the outset of the disaster ESB suggested that they did their very best in the circumstances. In our opinion this is only half true at best.”

He said the potential for disaster was under-estimated by the company and this was a result apparently of weak scientific analysis of the run-off in the catchment.

He said discharge levels in the days before the flood were too low, despite heavy rain in October, and a severe weather warning.

And once November 15 passed with the reservoirs effectively full, the flood was inevitable as the safety of the dams was threatened, he said.

“ESB originally claimed the flood was a one-in-800 year event flood. Residents told them they were wrong but the new information was not made public until five months after their report was completed. Is it any wonder the residents have little confidence in what they are told by ESB?” he said.

“The ESB report provides all the information needed to explain the flood. The buildings in low-lying parts of Cork city are not liable to a river flood except in the most extreme of circumstances. Insurance companies have no reason to refuse flood insurance for the city, and government should intervene to resolve this issue.”

Accountant Ciaran Baxter looks out on the rotting sandbags from his Grenville Place office every day.

“This would not be allowed to happen in any other city in any other country. Where are our local TDs and public representatives?” he said.

“The silences are deafening. Our local TDs are the people who have a direct line to the person who holds ultimate responsibility,” he said.

“I believe the buck stops with Minister John Gormley.

“It strikes me that some of our Government members are quick to pluck the flowers of environmental issues, but slow to grasp the weeds and nettles which have grown on the mounds of sand that garnish our quay walls.”