It is shocking the weather we are having isn’t it. I look out today with a dreadful feeling that where I live will experience what many parts of the country has seen over the last 24 hours.
I also thank myself for not doing what I was so tempted to do – you see I have an event this afternoon and about two weeks ago tried to book a bouncy castle as the mid afternoon entertainment.
Now the words “I tried” are literally that, I tried hard, I contacted about 5 or 6 “Bouncy Castle” companies and left messages on unanswered phones. I even e-mailed a couple of them. No response. So maybe it was fate after all.
Our alternative is a magician and at the cost I am investing in a top hat, magic wand and a book of tricks – but until I learn my skill I have to pay a real magician to entertain the 20 little ones who will critically rate this afternoons party like Simon Cowell on X Factor and to compete we must be better than last weeks act or next weeks. Tough being a parent.
Back to the weather, what is happening out there? We had a wet Summer, are having a wet winter more so than in previous years.
The photo that I enclose is the Grand Parade in Cork. Now if you don’t know Cork let me tell you. Cork City is an island between two branches of the River Lee. When it floods boy does it flood but quite amazingly this is the first time in 50 years that it has.
The roads will be dangerous today so please don’t take unnecessary journeys if you can avoid it. In reality, today is a duvet day.
The Irish Times runs the story on Ireland’s floods.
Further heavy rain forecast after ‘worst flooding in memory’
MARIE O’HALLORAN, BARRY ROCHE and LORNA SIGGINS – Irish Times
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”.
Filed under: A day in the life, Current Affairs | Tagged: bouncy castle, childrens party, cork, cork under water, flood plains, flooding, magician, weather, worst flooding in history
