Business community left to count the costs

Most of the traders in Douglas had no idea what chaos awaited them until early morning radio bulletins alerted them that the Cork City suburb had been badly flooded.

The lack of an early warning system in the village meant they were blissfully unaware that from shortly after midnight on Wednesday the local authority had been sending water pumps on to the streets of Douglas to fight the rising water levels.

Conor Falvey, who owns Falvey’s Chemist beside Douglas Village Shopping Centre, realised something was amiss when his electricity wasn’t working at home. Then he heard the 6.30am bulletin and 15 minutes later, he opened the shop door to be met with a tide of water.

Heavy wooden boxes had been swept from one side of the shop to another, electrics blown, the computer system likely ruined and any stock below four feet was only for binning.

“My family have been tenants here since 1975, we’re the longest tenants, and we’ve never suffered anything like this. And we don’t know what was in that water. We’ve managed to do prescriptions for some regulars today using handwritten labels, as you know, we just have to. But I don’t know when we’ll be back in business properly.”

Business people and workers travelling into the south-eastern suburb from Carrigaline and from the Jack Lynch Tunnel were met by two-mile tailbacks after 7am yesterday. Douglas was impassable, so the South Ring Road was the only route into the city. The Kinsale Road Roundabout was also a no-go area.

Some of Geraldine Corcoran’s staff at Bully’s Restaurant in Douglas abandoned their cars on the side of the South Ring Road and ran into work as they knew it was all about damage limitation.

All around Douglas yesterday, traders, their friends and families and council sub-contractors worked relentlessly: brushing out water from premises, pumping water from the streets, hosing mud-covered pavements and bagging the damaged stock that was strewn around shop interiors. Many could be seen carrying IT equipment out of offices and shops in the hope that some, at least, of the data could be retrieved. Douglas’s West Village is closest to the spot where the river burst, Laura’s Boutique and Dinos chip shop were waist deep in water at 5am. But, it was the Douglas Village Shopping Centre that best encapsulated the damage wrought in the Cork floods. Glass doors on the western side of the centre couldn’t keep the water out, bursting open under its impact. The deluge that flooded in carried 10 foot hoardings from one end of the centre to the other.

All the shops were flooded and the main walkways of the centre resembled a bombsite; shop mannequins, velvet lampshades and mahogany chairs were strewn everywhere. In the middle of the mall rested a beautifully dressed double bed festooned with cushions. It too had been carried along by the water.

Noel Gregg is one of the co-owners of Leonard’s Hair Salon in the centre. Little over two years ago, he spent €350,000 on renovations and he’s just opened a low-cost blow dry bar. Who knows when they will be able to operate a hairdryer in there again, let alone anything else, as the electrics, computer system, printers and sockets were all under water.

“We had a big family who were due to come into us this morning from East Cork. They were on their way to a wedding in Boston. It was terrible having to ring them and other customers today,” he said shaking his head.

Down the street, Zac Crawford was busy brushing water out of his family’s fish and chip shop, the much-loved KCs. The Crawfords were desperately trying not to be downbeat yesterday, even though all their freezers, fridges, cookers, deep fat fryers and food stocks were destroyed.

Earlier this week Zac’s grandmother, Edith, who set up the business three generations ago, died. She is due to be buried tomorrow.

“You know the one good thing is that the funeral wasn’t today,” said Zac’s father, Wes.

Such is the popularity of this Cork institution that they had to install a web-cam so customers could check out the queues online before they popped down. Last night, Twitter was electric with locals desperate to find out when it would re-open.

Meanwhile Peter Collins, owner of Barry’s pub in the village said it would be a matter of weeks before they will be serving pints again. Their wooden floors and floorboards were soaked through with contaminated water.

Last night, it was believed that Douglas Village Shopping Centre could be shut for a month.