Relief as rising waters subside
THERE was a collective sigh of relief in Enniscorthy on Friday morning as home and business owners in the town awoke to find that the rising tides of the River Slaney had subsided, for the moment at least. Heavy rain early last week, combined with melting snow lingering in the wake of Storm Emma meant that for many in the town, it was panic stations as the river rapidly began to rise.
On Thursday, the Slaney rose right up to the level of the new bridge and caused part of the road on the Promenade to be closed off as it was completely submerged. Meanwhile, on Templeshannon Quay, the water teetered right on the brink, lapping onto the road, but not actually making it impassible for vehicles passing through town.
Thankfully, there was no heavy rain on Thursday night and by Friday morning, the river level had dropped significantly, allowing Wexford County Council to stand down their flood alert. However, it was an extremely close call and plenty of home and business owners endured a couple of sleepless nights, all too aware of the devastation that floods can wreak on the town.
‘It was a very close call,’ said District Manager Liz Hore. ‘The river was literally brimming. It was as close as you could get to a flood. Thankfully though, it levelled off on Thursday. The winds dropped and there was no more heavy rain, so that worked in our favour.’
At it’s highest last week, the river measured 3.36 metres. Thankfully, this decreased rapidly between Thursday evening and Friday morning to a much more manageable 1.9 metres. On Wednesday, as the council continued to monitor the situation, the river was rising at a rate of six inches for every hour.
‘We raised the flood alert on Wednesday,’ Ms Hore said. ‘On Wednesday night we mobilised our crews and deployed sandbags at strategic locations around the town. We contacted Enniscorthy Chamber and asked them to get word out to local businesses and from around 10 p.m. our crews were going door to door calling to residents in places such as Island Road. We monitored the river overnight and we brought our crews out at 6 a.m. on Thursday morning, ready to go as we feared the worst with the tide.’
Thankfully though, while the River did rise to an incredibly high level, it did not cause anything like the devastation that Enniscorthy has seen in the past. The only major signs of flooding were confined to the Promenade, Edermine and a small amount of flooding at Clohamon.
As of Friday morning, Ms Hore was delighted to say that Enniscorthy was off flood alert and the council crews set about retrieving sandbags and beginning the clean-up.
‘Once again, our staff and crews were fantastic,’ she said. ‘They were just getting over the severe weather brought by Storm Emma and it was a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. They all got out there no problem though and everyone really pulled together again.’
While Enniscorthy was blessed to avoid yet another devastating flood, this close call will have provided all too timely reminder of how desperately the Flood Relief Scheme is needed. In the wake of Storm Emma, Minister of State for the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran visited Enniscorthy and gave assurances that the €49million for the scheme was ring-fenced and that the project was progressing, slowly but surely.
‘We have been assured that the money is there,’ said Ms Hore. ‘The project is due to go on public display hopefully within the next two months. Then people will get a chance to see what it will look like. There is a lot of work involved in this project, including putting in a new bridge and taking out the old one.
‘As well as that, because the River Slaney moves so fast, as we’ve seen in recent days, it has to be a permanent flood relief solution and then you also have the complex ecology of the river to deal with.
‘I can assure the people of Enniscorthy though, that the elected members, our team and the Engineer behind the project Larry McHale are all working extremely hard to ensure that we get this over the line.’
For some of the elderly residents of Island Road, this can’t come soon enough and they hope that they won’t have too many more sleepless nights with one eye on the rising tides looming at the back of their homes.