Flood-hit couple in plea to local council

AN EXHAUSTED grandmother whose home flooded five times in 72 hours, said she was on the verge of a ‘nervous breakdown’, unless something was done to alleviate flooding near her home.

The first of five 8-metre high tides in three days on the flooded River Shannon swept into Margaret and Paul Ryan’s bungalow, in Limerick, last Tuesday night.

The elderly couple claim nothing has been done to alleviate flooding on the river running behind their home.

The first flood swamped their home 23 years ago, and they have spent tens of thousands on their own flood defences.

‘I’m just at my wits end, I just can’t cope. I’m going to the doctor this morning to see will he give me something,’ said Margaret, 68.

‘I have a heart complaint and so has my husband,’ she added.

The worried pair, who are battling two high tides a day, had not slept in three nights. ‘It’s coming into us morning and at night. We are getting no help. I went out myself last night and bought a load of mops to mop up the place,’ Margaret said.

Her message to Limerick County Council, and those who manage the river and who are in charge of flood schemes, was clear, unlike the contaminated muddy water that poured into her modest abode: ‘They’ll have to do something, because I’m ready for a nervous breakdown.’

She claimed Limerick County Council promised to deliver dehumidifiers to their home on Wednesday but they were still waiting for them yesterday.

‘They are promising us this and that but we have got nothing.’

Paul, 73, said he loved his riverside home in Mill Road, Corbally, but acknowledged the floods have now taken their toll on him and his wife.

‘Margaret is going to the doctor to see can she get anything to calm her. It came in five inches around the whole house,’ he said.

He raised his yard by seven inches and built a double-wall between him and the river but it has made no difference.

‘It’s still coming through. So, I don’t know what we can do, there’s nothing to stop it.’

Paul said he worked for Limerick City Council for 35 years but claimed they have done little to help apart from delivering sandbags. ‘We never got anything from anyone down here and I did 35 years with the Council, and do you think they would do me any favours? No.’