Cork County Council has strongly defended its response to recent flooding caused by Storm Babet that saw some 250 properties in Midleton and hundreds of properties elsewhere in east Cork flooded after “unprecedented rainfall”.
Chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan cited “inaccurate commentary” by some in the media about the flooding being caused by blocked drains in the wake of last Wednesday’s flooding, which affected Midleton and surrounding villages.
“Cork County was as prepared as any agency could possibly have been for this unprecedented rainfall event, particularly in the town of Midleton and its environs,” said Ms O’Sullivan, adding all drains and gullies at known flooding black spots were checked on foot of Met Éireann’s Status Orange Alert.
“As regards Midleton, all drains and gullies were checked and cleared two weeks previously as part of the council’s routine drainage maintenance programme,” she said, adding the local area engineer took extra care on Monday to make sure all drains were clear after assessing the weather warning.
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Ms O’Sullivan said the levels of rain that fell on Tuesday night and Wednesday meant local rivers around Midleton such as the Owenacurra, the Roxborough and the Dungourney quickly reached capacity and were unable to take the water falling on the built environment.
“The fact is that when rivers reach capacity, the waters appear up through the drains and gullies, regardless of how clear they were before a flood event – this is known as surcharging,” she told councillors at Monday’s council meeting.
“The surface water drainage systems in place across every town have a limited capacity and are not designed to cope with intense bursts of rainfall and flash flooding in a short period of time. This is the reality and even the clearest of drains will surcharge in such cases.”
The volume of rainfall, which saw over 100mm of precipitation in parts of Cork county over a 36-hour period, equivalent to over a month’s rainfall, and 25mm between 10am and noon meant the system could not cope, and Midleton town centre flooded within seven to eight minutes.
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“No agency, regardless of preparedness or competence and we had both, could have prevented such rapid flooding – the only defence is the construction of a flood-relief scheme as evidenced by the comparatively contained situations in towns where defences are in place,” she said.
Ms O’Sullivan said that recent heavy rain came on top of a land already saturated, groundwater capacity already limited, and rivers already swollen with high tides – as happened in the Midleton estuary – complicating matters.
Ms O’Sullivan said that the Owenacurra burst its banks around lunch hour on Wednesday as river levels rose, resulting in areas of Midleton flooding to a depth of a metre or more.
Among the buildings that flooded was Midleton Community Hospital where there were some 43 patients. HSE staff were initially able to move patients to higher floors, but they all had to be evacuated the following day, she said.
The council’s severe weather assessment team had convened nine times since Monday, meeting twice daily on most days and the flood emergency plan was activated with a control centre being set up at Midleton Fire Station, she said.
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