Bandon’s traders praying for a flood-free new year as they recover from this year's damage
MANY people in Bandon are suffering from post-traumatic stress since the floods of 2009 and even the sound of rain at night causes alarm. So the recent flood damage just caused more torment.
The flooding of December 5 was an event most people in Bandon thought could and should have been prevented, particularly if long-delayed flood relief works had been completed as planned.
Instead, they have yet to properly start, beset by difficulties in recent years across a period when many affected by the even worse flooding of 2009 have had to go without flood insurance.
However, it goes deeper than that. Barry O’Donovan, of O’Donovan Electrical on South Main St, the town’s main business strip, is also national secretary of the Irish Red Cross.
Locally, he and other volunteers have been assisting people affected by this month’s flooding to fill in the forms for the Government’s short-term aid package, through which businesses can claim up to €5,000 with a minimum amount of fuss. Phone lines only dried out fully last Friday, so internet access was limited.
The recent flooding was an acutely painful reprise of the experiences of 2009, said Mr O’Donovan.
“Many people are suffering from post-traumatic stress since 2009,” he said, adding that some people hear rain at night and start fidgeting. One of his Red Cross colleagues, who popped into the shop, added: “Some didn’t sleep since last Saturday week.”
If this sounds like an exaggeration, it isn’t. “It is a very stressful time,” Barry said, describing the “massive psychological kick” delivered by the 2009 flood.
“The simple fact is a lot of traders here would have put a lot of their own savings into their business since 2009. It’s very difficult for them to see the waters rising again, knowing they do not have insurance. There is a human element to this. It affects everyone in the community.”
He recalled how some residents of nearby buildings attended the two emergency centres operated by the Red Cross a few weekends ago, “shaking with fear”.
Since then, some have been shaking with rage, or are weary with frustration. According to Gillian Powell, owner of Haven Montessori on Watergate St (it flooded), “feelings are running so high”.
Last Friday morning workers were repairing a 6in water pipe that runs underneath a pedestrian bridge — part of the mains system that crosses the Bandon River, bringing water from one side to the other. Men in yellow jackets were on the job, which was due to be completed by Saturday morning. No home or business was adversely affected by this little episode, which made a change from recent goings-on.
One worker said trees and debris that had been swept down the river had done for the pipe. But before all that he made a telling remark, even if it sounded like a quip: “You’re not another person coming up to give out to us?”
This helps explain the 66 or so signatures to a petition, organised by the newly formed Bandon Business Alliance, threatening to withhold payment of rates — estimated at €1m — from July 1, if work has not begun on the flood relief scheme.
Cork County Council has responded by pointing out that the Office of Public Works is the agency responsible for delivery of the works, but some in Bandon believe the threat of direct action against the local authority might help focus minds elsewhere.
As one man, who did not wish to be named, said: “What are the rates for?”
He said they should be there to support the services that keep businesses trading, but which are not being provided.
He broadened the question into this poser: “What are the council for? They do not provide free parking; they do not collect the rubbish. What are the rates for apart from paying the guy who collects the rates?”
Ms Powell, like many others in Bandon, has nothing but sympathy for people living in the Midlands and along the Shannon who are in an even worse predicament. But she said: “Bandon is different because this is solvable for €12m. It’s not the Nile.”
Ms Powell’s colleague in the Bandon Flood Group, Maria McLaughlin, is similarly exasperated.
“There appears to be no plan,” she said, though she, like so many others, is happy to praise the community spirit of locals and the support from customers.
“The big thing is that the local people are really supporting the town,” she said. “There has been a huge increase in footfall. There is an awful lot of goodwill around. That has been a huge comfort to Bandon.”
Frank O’Leary of O’Leary and Daughters agrees. He has put in for the €5,000 relief money, and hopes it will land this week.
However, while it will help replace the floor — left exposed since the laminated wood was pulled up two weekends ago — he fears his skirting boards might also start to buckle.
If they do, he says he’ll need a lot more than €5,000 to cover that, meaning he, like others, will apply for the additional funding stream for sums of up to €15,000 in the new year.
However, he speculated the qualifying threshold for that may be so high that the funds could be hard to get.
The support of customers has been a welcome bright spot: “If they want to have a town they have to support it,” he reasoned. “It has been a very deep and tough recession, especially for retail.”
As he spoke, two dehumidifiers were still humming away in his drapery store. He pointed out that, until the day before, there were six of them on the go. “I would say our electricity bill is going to be enormous,” he said.
In all likelihood it will be well into next year before all repairs are complete, with the people of this riverside town left in fear of further floods and hoping for a drama-free new year.
