- a personal reaction by Senator Fidelma Healy Eames,

Hi,

It is Sunday morning and I feel exhausted from the flooding ordeal, pained by seeing so many people suffer. I wish it would go away at this stage. In the first few days there were lots of emergency calls when the floods struck but it is still here 10 days later. It is lasting too long for people to cope. While this area wasn’t devastated to the extent of others in South or East Galway, where people have been affected it is very bad.

While lots of road were and still are flooded, my main concern in the first instance was for people whose homes are at risk or who have had to be evacuated. I found out tho it is equally shocking and perhaps more prolonged for families who wait in their homes as they watch the floods etch closer and closer to their door. Whose driveways/ roadways are inaccessible by car. They guard their homes as they wait in fear, contemplating their fate..

Yesterday, I was shocked by the scene I met in Moneymore (near Oranmore). The previous day I had gotten a call from a local resident to say his family home had 12 inches of water in the kitchen and the water level was still rising. They had been dealing with this for 6 days. He was looking for permission to cut a trench to release the water in his own land at the back of the family home. I felt like granting him the permission there and then, but to err on the side of caution, I put in the requisite calls to the Council emergency line seeking an immediate call out. I followed up with further calls to the local engineer til I got him in person.

Why the family hadn’t called me earlier I don’t know. The difficult thing about this flooding ordeal is that unless people tell you who is in difficulty you can’t necessarily work it out for yourself. You can’t access the roads in the first place.

While his problem was clearly an emergency that they had been living with – his brother was living upstairs while the flood rose downstairs – the problem I found out was far bigger than one family. I met residents numbed by the days of fighting the floods. Exhaustion and worry had penetrated their bodies. Shock was written all over their faces..

There was relief among the residents I met that the OPW had arrived by the time I got there on Saturday. I was relieved too to see activity that might relieve the problem. Mind you the floods were still high. I was unable to drive or walk thru. One adventurous young boy showed me he could cycle thru, altho the flood was thigh-high.

What struck me forcibly was the relief amobg the residents affected that someone called, that someone cared. They were tired fighting the floods alone. And I’m not even sure the problem is sorted yet.

Then onto Derrydonnell Nth where up to 40 residents on a private road have had to rely on sharing local jeeps in order to gain access to their homes. This needs to be investigated by Monday so an engineering solution can be found. Monday night they have convened a public meeting.

Finally to Ballinacloghy in Maree where I had been supporting as indeed so had the great neighbours, a woman living alone and house-bound for days. Despite enlisting the Council, the Civil Defence and the Fire Service they had all been unable to alleviate the flooding which prevented access to her home and driveway. What she wanted most was to be able to have her car moved to a neighbour’s dry driveway so she could be independent. She could access this neighbour thru the fields. To date none of the services or indeed a local garage are able to remove her car while the floods are more than two feet deep. Daily she measures the depth of the flood waiting for a reprieve. She wants to go back to work by Monday, if nothing else I’m sure to resume contact with the outside world again.

This week I spoke in Seand Eireann about the need for permanent solutions now that we know rainfall is on the increase. The granting of planning on flood plains is wrong as is the neglect of our waterways. Regular up-keep and maintenance needs to resume. The Council must oversee this work. I sense the anger mounting among residents for permanent solutions to prevent a reoccurence of this disaster in the future. To be honest I am frustrated that there is no preventative work at Council level unless there is a catastrophy. And even with that there is no guarantee as we saw in a previous flooding and evacuation case in Moneymore. Despite promises that ‘no stone would be left unturned’ by Galway County Council, the long-term works to prevent the problem reoccuring were not attended to. At best only the short-term situation is attended to. This approach has failed us all. But the question remains will this change in the future? I’m not at all sure.