Flood victims left high and dry a year on

A YEAR after their lives were turned upside down by extensive flooding, residents and business owners across Cork still live in fear every time heavy rain is forecasted for their towns.

Some homeowners have only managed to get out of rental properties and back into their houses in the last few weeks — and while some businesses are barely struggling to survive thanks to the cost of repairs and the insurance hikes, others have simply not re-opened at all.

In all, more than 150 houses and some 200 commercial properties were severely damaged across Cork county after more than 50mm of rain fell on Jun 28, 2012.

Among them were 49 homes in the Meadowbrook Estate in Glanmire which were flooded up to depths of 3ft when the Glashaboy river burst its banks.

According to the Jim Healy, chairman of the Meadowbrook Residents’ Association, the householders there are still living in fear.

“When it rains very heavily, people get paranoid. It’s a huge worry. We have been promised lots of work to be done by the county council but as of today, nothing has been done. They did clear out debris from the river at the outset but that is about all they did. We have been promised a complete review of the whole system and they said they would introduce flood barriers and measures to make the estate safe but it just has not happened.”

The long-term impact of last year’s floods is being felt much more keenly by some Meadowbrook residents than others.

“Some people have been able to get flood cover but others have not,” said Mr Healy. “A lot of people had problems with insurance companies and were having to haggle.”

Cork County Council director of service for water, Katherine Walsh, said introducing flood barrier works would be premature in advance of the catchment floodrisk management scheme. The council is acting as agent for the Office of Public Works (OPW) to procure as scheme for the Glashaboy’s catchment, including Glanmire and nearby Sallybrook.

“Following the flood event [last year], five separate debris blockages with a cumulative quantity of approximately 150 tonnes were removed from the Glashaboy River. Cork County Council’s local roads area office has carried out numerous repairs to damaged road and drainage infrastructure in the aftermath of the flood,” she noted.

In Clonakilty, the town centre streets disappeared under a river of water when the flooding hit. According to local councillor Donal O’Rourke, private residences were “decimated” and ratepayers in the centre were hugely impacted.

He said over the last 12 months, some interim measures have been put in place such as tackling the surface water drainage problems which made the situation worse last year.

“Any measures being carried out currently are only short-term measures to alleviate surface water problems,” he said. “They don’t deal with the major issue which is the inflow of water into the town. The only long-term solution is to hold back flood waters upstream from the town attenuation.”

Mr O’Rourke said the OPW had said last June that it would come back to the town in mid-2013 with a list of preferred options to for long-term solutions in Clonakilty.

“The OPW have not come back yet,” he said. “When they do come back the issue of funding becomes a huge concern. Budgets are limited.”

Just as in flood-risk areas across the country, residents and business owners live in fear of another deluge and the impact it will have on their lives.

“Every time there is an alert people are in fear because the current measures only scratch the surface,” said Mr O’Rourke. “We cannot wait for 20 years. Businesses won’t survive it.”

Ms Walsh said Clonakilty has been given top priority in a south-western flood risk assessment and management study following council representations to the OPW. The OPW’s consultant has considered all flood defence options and a report on the preferred option to manage flood risk in the town has been prepared and will be presented to the public shortly.

She said gully replacements, jetting works and drainage pipe repair have been carried out by the roads area office and Clonakilty Town Council, which is carrying out urgent repair works on the river wall at Kent St.

When the flooding hit Douglas, just outside Cork City, it not only put small businesses out of action, but an entire shopping centre.

The two anchor tenants of Douglas Village Shopping Centre, Tesco and Marks & Spencer did not reopen for almost two weeks and almost two months respectively.

Others in the area were not so fortunate. According to local councillor, Deirdre Forde, a lot of businesses are now defunct “and it is a case of clawing back for those that are back in business now”.

“The threat of flooding has receded thanks to works carried out in the community park and other areas to mitigate against future flash floods,” she said. “But I am concerned in relation to insurance cover with some businesses and residents saying their insurance had increased as a result and others saying they cannot get cover. I feel businesses were held to ransom and are still being held to ransom as there is no way of calculating the true cost.”

The county council is also working for the OPW to procure a flood risk management scheme for the Douglas River/Ballybrack catchment and said it has installed floodgates and an associated drainage system in Douglas community park.

Blackpool on Cork’s northside has had repeated problems with flooding over a number of years, with last June’s events posing huge headaches for residents and businesses alike.

What angers local Centra owner Jer Buckley is the apparent lack of urgency to prevent it happening again.

He said earlier this year the risk was made even worse when 20 tonnes of rock were placed in the River Bride — the river which overflowed and caused flooding — to hold up a wall which was in a state of collapse.

“That rock has now risen the water table further,” he said. “That was a shortcut. They should have repaired the wall properly.”

Mr Buckley said a number of interim measures were mooted in the aftermath of last June. For example, he said cameras which were to be put in place to monitor water levels never materialised. He said there has been no sign of the JCB which was supposed to be made available 24 hours a day in the event of a flood alert.

He said while the council is clearing the river screens of debris, nothing was being done to clear the banks where accumulated rubbish could wash into the river in a downpour causing an even greater flood risk.

“Businesses in Blackpool will not be able to get back on their feet if this happens again. They no longer have the insurance,” he said. “It is not acceptable that a local authority can demand rates but not protect the business owners from the flooding.”

While officials delay on decision making, those hit by flooding keep listening to the weather forecast.