WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR SUMMER?
Deluge floods shops, overwhelms defences and sends manholes popping in the air... and there’s more to come, warns Met Éireann
MORE flood misery is on the way for businesses already devastated by Storm Francis, after torrential rain overwhelmed flood defences.
Terence Gibbs said his pub, the Cosy Cabin in Bantry, Co. Cork, was under 17 inches of water after the town’s ancient culvert system was unable to cope with the deluge.
And Jessie Hegarty, who co-owns a Mace supermarket and Burke’s clothes shop in the town, said the force of the water caused manholes to shoot a foot and a half in the air.
Up to 50 homes and businesses in the town were damaged in heavy rain between 10pm on Monday and 2am yesterday. And Met Éireann warned last night of more downpours and flash flooding.
A Status Yellow rainfall warning was in place for 16 counties last night as locals in Bantry and Bandon in Co. Cork were surveying the damage. Business owners in Bantry were angry that the town’s culvert system, which is hundreds of years old, has not been modernised since a major flood in 1984.
Mr Gibbs said his bar has been totally destroyed by the floods.
‘It’s absolutely devastating. Everything is destroyed. Standing in the pub, I was like Moses parting the Red Sea, it was unbelievable. Unless we get help from the Government or the insurance companies, we’re going to have to close down,’ he told the Irish Daily Mail.
Mr Hegarty said: ‘The manholes were shooting a foot and a half into the air as the water came gushing up from the culvert. It was like something from a cartoon.’
He drove down the street, desperately trying to get into the clothes shop. ‘I could see all the businesses across the street were flooding. I parked in the yard and could see we hadn’t flooded yet. By the time I got in and switched off the alarms, the shop had three inches of flooding. That’s how fast it was,’ he said.
He said the entire culvert system needs to be urgently updated.
In a statement, Cork County Council said Bandon’s drainage and sewer network was overwhelmed by the volume of rainfall. It also said the Office of Public Works’ Major Flood Relief Scheme for Bandon is near completion.
‘Its main aspects are functioning and performed well during this event,’ the council said.