Flooding crisis: ‘The majority of people here have no insurance’
It was 7am when the flood struck.
Fighting back tears she recalled the moment she and her grandchild, wearing only their pyjamas, clung to the side of a rescue boat on Oliver Plunkett St, in St Mary’s Park, Limerick.
“I’m living here 24 years and I have never seen something like it before.”
“My father-in-law Frank Hogan, who’s 80, cried last night because this is our family home for years and he wanted to come and help,” she said.
Ms Hogan slept on a couch in a friend’s house last night. She said her family is in limbo and does not know what will happen next.
“We need help now,” she screamed.
“We have no electricity, our houses are contaminated with dirty water, we have no downstairs anymore, we have no furniture... it’s all destroyed.”
She said the “majority of people here have no insurance”.
Her car, which ended up submerged on its roof, is a “write off”.
“We need places to stay, we need furniture, we need refurbished homes, we need new plaster on the walls. New doors, electrics, windows, stairs... the whole lot.”
She said the floodwater reached the seventh step of her stairs. Yesterday she and her family spent the day dumping the contents of their downstairs into their front yard, which was still under 1m of water.
The sheer scale of the tragedy has left thousands without power or a home.
“What I’m wearing, children up the road gave to me,” said Ms Hogan.
“Children gave me the clothes on my back. I’ve no idea who owns them.”
Maria Keane, also a resident of Oliver Plunkett St, was woken by her son, 13, on Saturday.
“We were in bed and my son came in and told me the house was flooded. We never had this before and I’m living in St Mary’s Park for 40 years,” she said.
The mother of three said: “Everything is ruined. We have no choice but to throw everything out, even the children’s Christmas presents.”
She was just one of hundreds who fled her home in the northside Limerick estate wearing only her pyjamas as the river swept away all her possessions.
She praised Ger Hogan, 57, after he brought her and her children to her brother’s house by horse and cart.
Mr Hogan, a father of seven, has helped ferry both young and old from their washed-out homes to safety, with the help of his trusty three-year-old mare Peg.
“I’m just doing my bit. We have great neighbours around us in St Mary’s Park and all I’m doing is my best,” he said.
Peg waded through river up to her belly as she continued to transport locals.
A major emergency response was continuing yesterday in King’s Island where St Mary’s Park is located, involving the Army, Civil Defence, Limerick &Fire and Rescue Service, Gardaí, Limerick City Council, ambulance personnel, the HSE, public health nurses, and Limerick Marine Search and Rescue.
