Homeowners flee as Galway floods leave towns marooned

Desperate homeowners across south Galway were at crisis point tonight as floods continued to run off hills leaving farms, villages and towns marooned.

Residents living in at-risk areas fled their houses while soldiers and civil defence teams delivered thousands of sandbags.

Councillor Gerry Finnerty, from Gort in the south of the county, said some homes in the town have being flooded for a week.

“We are in a huge sad situation and we do not know when it is going to finish or how far it will go,” he said.

“I got my first call about this from a resident last Wednesday, but now it is at crisis point.

“We have huge areas marooned, villages marooned off, and people are isolated in their homes.”

Mr Finnerty said conditions worsened when streams of water from the Slieve Aughty Mountains and the Burren flowed into the town, situated on the main Galway to Ennis Road.

Businessman Michael Finn revealed water was three feet high inside his furniture shop, while a bog at the rear of his premises had turned into a 17 acre lake.

“The water here is higher than the house across the road,” said the broken businessman.

“This is the lowest part of Gort. We still have three days worth of rain to come down from the mountains.

“My business is gone. I can’t see myself operating here again. My livelihood is gone.

“I’m in hell for the last two weeks. Now I know what hell is.”

The Defence Forces said 35 soldiers with five support vehicles were working in the town.

Councillor Bridie Willers, who has been evacuated from her home in nearby Ardrahan, said everyone was struggling.

“The build up of water over the last three to four days is incredible,” she said.

“The turloughs are full, there are high tides, and the rain is still coming down.

“If the rain stopped we might get a bit of relief.”

Galway County Council said while many roads across the county have started to reopen, some in the south – including sections of the main Galway-Limerick route - remain underwater.

Large volumes of water are also flooding across the main N18 road at Kiltartan where a wall collapsed.

“The water is static at the moment in a lot of places, and levels have decreased a bit in some areas, but there is a lot of flooding in south Galway,” said a council spokeswoman.

“In around Kiltartan there is a lot of water.

“While we didn’t carry out any evacuations, we understand there were several self evacuations.

“We are continuing to monitor everywhere.”

Elsewhere, Iarnrod Eireann announced the opening of the first phase of the Western Rail Corridor has been delayed as a result of severe flooding in the Kiltartan area.