Parts of Limerick estate remain under water
While the water level dropped a few feet, homes and cars were still submerged.
Tears welled up in Mary Hogan’s eyes as she looked out on the river that used to be her front garden.
Pointing to a settee in her swamped living room, the mother of two from Oliver Plunkett St, St Mary’s Park, said: “That couch, I got it just before Christmas. The water is up over the seats of it. You can see the marks. The dirt is all up my walls.”
The house is just one of hundreds ruined after the River Shannon burst its banks and swamped houses on the King’s Island and surrounding areas.
Mother of three Ann Keogh was asleep in bed when the floods swept through her home on Oliver Plunkett St at 7am.
“My grandchild’s birthday was Thursday,” said Ms Keogh, fighting back tears. “He was three. All his birthday presents are gone. Every possession I owned is gone. What am I going to do? I’m living in a river.”
Her son Dean, 15, who breeds pigeons in the back yard, was devastated after finding eight baby pigeons drowned in the flood.
“The water was coming in and it just filled up the shed, and the baby pigeons that had hatched out the day before died because they were low down on the ground,” he said. “Luckily I have sand bags down there now.”
“I have pigeons about a year now. It’s a hobby, something to do because there’s nothing else to do around here.
“Its a good hobby. I race them as well at St Mary’s Racing Pigeon Club.”
Residents have been ripping out their downstairs fittings and dumping the contents outside their front doors. Mounds of furniture, mattresses, and kitchen appliances now dot the local landscape.
Limerick City Council has already lobbied the Government for emergency funding to help those worst affected by the flood.
St Munchin’s Family Resource Centre, Killeely, is providing the flood victims with 200 free breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.
