Midleton locals seek volunteer 'flood buddies' to help vulnerable residents in event of flood

Organiser Caroline Leahy said 'residents were left to their own devices' during Storm Babet in October 2023

The flooding in Midleton, Co Cork, caused by Storm Babet in October 2023.

Residents in Midleton are looking for volunteer “flood buddies” to help vulnerable people in the town in the event of a flood.

They are wanted to help in the event houses in the town are hit by the sort of floods that wreaked havoc there during Storm Babet nearly two years ago.

Ideally, they should be young, fit, able-bodied and able to drive.

Organiser and Midleton woman Caroline Leahy, a member of the Midleton and East Cork Flood Protection Group, said: “Residents were left to their own devices for a considerable amount of time in the last big flood.

“We are all doing what we can to help mitigate against the level of destruction we sustained in Storm Babet and ‘Flood Buddies’ is one of our latest ideas.

“While we appreciate that not every person over a certain age is vulnerable, and will have sons or daughters or relatives to help them, not everybody has somebody that they can call on."

We want to make sure that everybody is looked after, and nobody is left to their own devices.

Details of the ‘Flood Buddy” scheme will be announced at a meeting on September 1, at 8pm at the Talbot (formerly Midleton Park) Hotel.

Flooding on Main Street, Midleton, during Storm Babet. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Ms Leahy said everyone was welcome and she hoped to get about 50 volunteers.

She added “fear and anger” is mounting locally as the second anniversary of the October 18 Storm Babet approaches.

She said not enough was being done fast enough to ensure as many houses and shops as possible have adequate flood mitigation measures in place.

As of July 17, 656 of the 725 valid applications for Individual Property Protection had yet to be completed.

Cork County Council has been previously asked about concerns around the amount of time it was taking to install the flood barriers in general.

It has also been asked if everyone who needs flood defences will have them in place before October under the Midleton and East Cork Individual Property Protection (IPP) Scheme.

In reply, it said it was “aware of the concerns around the timeline" for the delivery of the Midleton and East Cork IPP scheme.

But it also said work was dependent on “the level of uptake of the scheme and the market response”.

It added the scale of this IPP scheme “vastly exceeds that of any similar scheme delivered in Ireland or wider Europe”.