‘It was like a scene from Armageddon’
I was all set to give out to him until I looked out the window and saw what looked like a river running through the estate.
I rushed downstairs and tried to stop it coming through the door but at that stage, it was too late. It was a strong torrent of water and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
The power of it had to be seen to be believed. It flowed straight into the estate. It was covering the floor of our cars at that stage.
We all managed to get out, we got our dog Sophie out, and we were lucky enough to save our cars. Then all we could do was lock the door of the house and leave.
The water kept rising until about 6.30am. Then, it slowly started to recede. The fire brigade arrived but there was very little that could be done to prevent damage.
It was as high as five or six feet in some parts of the estate. The fire brigade rescued those who couldn’t get out of their homes, and helped others move upstairs.
By the time I got back to my house, it had been ruined. All the floors had come up, the furniture was destroyed, but we were no different to anybody else. Luckily, no one was injured or killed.
I managed to wade to other parts of the estate where the water was even higher. I knew there was an elderly man living nearby who slept on the ground floor of his house, so myself and two firemen managed to wake him up and move him upstairs in his house.
It was like a scene from Armageddon. The fire brigade had brought a RIB and punts to rescue people, water was nearly covering the cars. It was something else.
People kept their sense of humour through it all. The Hazelwood Shopping Centre was completely flooded and we joked that its underground car park finally meant that Ireland had an Olympic-size swimming pool.
At the height of it, my son James said he needed to walk to the Hazelwood Centre to McCarthy’s Sports because all the Sarsfield’s U-14 hurling team gear for the Féile next week in Dublin was there. Luckily, they had handed it over to the club the previous day. Otherwise that would have been ruined too.
One woman on the estate had her goldfish bowl washed away but the goldfish were found swimming around the garden and rescued by hand, which was pretty amazing.
Ironically, I got a text message telling me of a flood warning in Bandon. I was standing up to my waist in water when I got the message, thinking ‘What about bloody Glanmire’s warning?’
It felt a little bit like the blitz in England during the war. Everyone pulled together. The community centre was offering teas and coffees to people and Liam Griffin from SuperValu sent across a load of grub.
It was a hairy few hours. It will take weeks to clean up. Looking around, what was a sea of water just a few hours ago is now a sea of mud.
