HOMEOWNERS AND businesses in deluged areas of the south, west and midlands are bracing themselves for more heavy rains tonight after some of the worst flooding in living memory.
The full cost of the floods, which left parts of Cork city under water for the first time in more than 50 years, is likely to be more than €100 million. This would top the record €98 million cost of flooding in August 2008.
Last night, the Defence Forces said it had increased its relief efforts, with about 175 soldiers, 24 vehicles, four flat-bottomed boats and well over 10,000 sandbags deployed in Cork, Bantry, Clonakilty, Clonmel, Ennis, Ballinasloe and Carlow.
A further 300 soldiers, with vehicles and helicopters, were on stand-by.
The Government held an emergency meeting yesterday in response to what Taoiseach Brian Cowen described as the “unprecedented flooding”, while Minister for the Environment John Gormley last night travelled to Cork to see first-hand the damage caused in the city.
“These are some of the worst floods we have seen in many parts of the country in living memory and our priority must be to help those people whose lives and livelihoods have been so badly hit by these events,” Mr Gormley said.
The Taoiseach said “the immediate priority for Government is to ensure that shelter is available for those people who have been displaced from their homes and to arrange for the provision of emergency supplies of safe drinking water where systems have been damaged.”
Massive damage was caused all along the western approach to Cork city centre, after flood waters surged, following the release by the ESB of a large volume of water from Inniscarra Dam eight miles from the city.
The action resulted in a huge wash of water flowing down towards the city with the north channel of the river bursting through the quay wall at Grenville Place and flooding the ground floor of the Mercy University Hospital.
Fears of water pollution have resulted in boil notices being issued in parts of counties Cork and Galway.
About 18,000 people were without water in Cork city last night because of damage to a pump house near the River Lee. Water tankers were being brought in to provide clean water.
Among the worst affected areas were Ballinasloe, Craughwell, Gort, Claregalway and Athenry in Co Galway, Abbeyknockmoy and Athleague on the Galway-Roscommon border and Ennis, Co Clare.
In Ballinasloe, hundreds of people were evacuated with the help of the Defence Forces, Garda Síochána, Civil Defence and volunteers after the river Suck burst its banks.
People were being put up in hotels and with neighbours and relatives.
As the clean-up costs mount, insurance providers questioned the continued viability of paying for repeat weather-related claims. Industry sources said insurance was for “unexpected” events but flooding in certain areas had become “predictable”.
