FLOODING: Farmer forced off his land to spend Christmas in small caravan

A farmer who was forced from his home by flood waters now expects to spend Christmas alone in a small caravan in Co Offaly.

Drystock farmer Paddy Towey, 61, was forced from his home in Shannon Harbour by floodwater on Sunday.

“It came on to the road and into the house on Sunday evening,” he said.

There are several inches of water in his sitting room of his home.

“How long will it take to dry out?” he asked, adding, “it will be into the new year.”

He is now living in a small caravan beside his house.

“Nobody in authority has come here. John Leahy [a local Renua Ireland councillor] is the first,” he said.

“I am lucky to be what I am, light-hearted, but I tell you, this is pushing the barrier.”

Recalling the promises of action to prevent flooding after the 2009 deluge, Mr Towey said, “what they say at the time recedes like the water. It is gone.”

While the water levels aren’t at the height of the 2009 floods, Mr Towey said, “for me, it’s as bad”.

In his home the floor is completely submerged and has started to rise up. The electricity is gone and what furniture as could be saved has been piled above the flood level.

Mr Towey lifted all of the furniture out of the floodwater by himself last Sunday as he prepared to leave the house. He now keeps a fire on in the range to try and stop the house getting any colder. In his small caravan a gas Superser provides heat.

Mr Towey has dozens of animals in a cattle shed at the rear of the house. The animals are in good health but have to be kept in the shed because they are surrounded on four sides by water. While he has family in Donegal, Mr Towey cannot leave the area because he has to tend to his animals, some of which have recently calved.

His supply of turf is sodden, his bales of hay, which had been kept off the ground on wooden pallets, are also starting to soak up the floodwater. Mr Towey has had to move several animals from outlying buildings and now houses all his cattle in the one shed. It’s far from ideal, he acknowledges, but “what can I do?” he asks.

The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) member believes the floods are the result of the “mismanagement” of the Shannon. He believes those in control of the Shannon should have listened to the calls of the IFA’s Michael Silke, who lobbied for a single body controlling the Shannon.

Mr Towey isn’t impressed by the CFRAM (Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management) studies.

“They are spending millions for people to survey the things, and for what? It is totally frustrating,” he remarked. “Go to somebody who has lived here all their life and they will tell them what to do with it. They are throwing good money after bad.”

Patrick Kenny, another IFA member and friend of Mr Towey’s, shares Mr Towey’s view of the CFRAM studies. He wants to see one authority with power over the management of the Shannon. “Too many bodies have too much say in the Shannon,” he remarked. Mr Kenny said those farming on the Shannon Callows have been suffering hardship due to the serious flooding on their land for many years.