‘Complacent functionaries’ worsen floods misery

WE must be grateful for small mercies — but not too grateful to those who released more than 500 tonnes of water per second close to midnight last Thursday when most people were in bed and business owners, already trying to cope with a battered economy, had left their premises unaware that the ESB, in its wisdom, had decided to lower the water level in the Inniscarra dam as the witching-hour of midnight approached.

The small mercies are that nobody was injured directly as a result of the ESB action, unlike what happened in France almost 50 years ago when the arched dam at Malpasset collapsed after extremely heavy rainfall.

Around 9pm on December 2, 1959, millions of cubic metres of water roared down the valley towards the town of Frejus, travelling at 70km an hour.