Severe Flooding in Ireland (and UK)

Itallian Chauffeur · Moderator

Severe Flooding in Ireland (and UK)

Itallian Chauffeur · Moderator

Further details, this from the Irish Voice:

The country is facing a multi-million euro clean-up bill after some of the worst flooding in living memory.

Bandon, Clonakilty, Skibbereen and Dunmanway in County Cork took the worst of the flooding and were all virtually cut off by the floods.

Motorists have been urged to avoid unnecessary travel as the weather service says more rain is on the way.

The Irish Army was called out to deal with the rising floodwaters in the south and west of the country with soldiers despatched to Bantry and Clonakilty in County Cork, Ballinasloe in County Galway, Ennis in County Clare and Clonmel in Co Tipperary.

More soldiers are on standby throughout the country as more rain is expected through Friday.
The Air Corps helicopters are also on standby but the bad weather means they could be grounded.

Rivers in Cork and Tipperary burst their banks flooding the quays in both places. The main approach road to Bandon in County Cork was cut off by a landlslide and the town looked like a mini-Venice as two rivers broke their banks and flooded the town's main street with up to five feet of water.

Bob

Michele Erdvig · Host

Bob,

Thanks for the news flash. I have been watching the weather in Ireland. Not good. It seems even worse than last year at this time. I hope all our friends there are safe.

Michele

Itallian Chauffeur · Moderator

I've got some emails out --

The Cork city, Bandon, Dunmany, Skib area is part of my normal 'stomping ground', so I know that area well. They've had a REALLY wet/nasty summer, but THIS is well beyond that. cry

I read that Ireland/UK got over a FOOT of rain in under 24 hours.

More rain forcasted for the weekend. hmm

Hope we don't see any Bog Slides ...

Bob

Rosa_Mundi · Veteran Member

Of course NO time is a 'good' time for something like this to happen but for all of these small businesses to lose so much at this time of year (and in this economy) must be devastating. You've probably seen the newsclip where a shopowner was saying that they always carried insurance and it was about 4,000Euro/yr until they had flooding one year and had to make a claim-then their premiums went up to about 32,000Euro/yr WITHOUT flood coverage!...so they dropped their insurance. Now this.

And I don't mean to minimize the difficulties families are facing- I can't even imagine how frustrating (and scary!) it must be to have to evacuate because there's a river running through your living room.

I'm curious about the tourists that are there now. Does travel insurance cover something like this?

Michele Erdvig · Host

I have some clients in Ireland right now. I hope their trip doesn't have to be readjusted for the flooding.

Heard from some friends in Bunratty and they are fine. I'm sure it will be a massive clean up.

Michele

WCOMALLEY · Veteran Member

Bob, how are your relatives doing in all this? WC

Itallian Chauffeur · Moderator

A further update: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/midwest-braced-for-further-flooding-435607.html

WC -- From email, we hear that none of my wife's relations have been adversely affected, personally, but that the situation IS rather grim -- with MORE rain forecast.

On Weds. last, one of the cousins actually drove from East Cork over to Killarney and back, but she had the foresight to leave the family sedan at home and instead, drove one of her husband's 4WD Toyota Landcruisers.... biggrin

This would have been during the worst of the rain, but before so many of the rivers overflowed their banks and the mudslides blocked off Bandon.

Short term, it all seems quite discomforting, but I am MUCH more concerned as to the Long-Term impact on the infrastructure, given the current state of the Irish economy ... hmm hmm

Bob

Michele Erdvig · Host

For those keeping up with the flood news you can go to YouTube and put in "Ireland 2009 Floods" for videos and pics of the flooding.

Bob, Here is Bandon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AC7O-Q8IhM

My friends in Bunratty say that Sixmilebridge is bad and the bridge may collapse. There is a video of it here: http://tw0.us/59uEven the ducks at the Duck Inn had the sense to evacuate the river.

And if you want to see how some tourists made the best of the weather: http://tw0.us/59v

Not forgetting Northern Ireland: http://tinyurl.com/yd8kd7u

Michele