‘Our house was flooded, we got 3ins of water in’

STORM Brian left homes flooded in Limerick as the city and county took a fierce battering.

Tom Bolger could only look on as the River Shannon swept into his home, at Mill Road, Corbally.

The stormy weather had carried an early morning tide into the building.

He said: “We got three inches of water in right across the house. Unfortunately it was the tide and the wind together that did it.

“After it went out we started to mop up. We’ve been flooded around five times since the 1970s.

“The worst was the storm in 2014 – there was 20 inches of water that time in the house.”

Tom’s neighbour and brother-in-law, Pat Lysaght, 74, watched the river rise serval feet, edging towards his back door.

He said: “For us, this was worse than Ophelia. The tide that day was 6.7 metres. This morning it rose to 7.2 metres.

“At 8.10am it just kept coming towards the house and it didn’t start turning back out again until 9am. It came lapping at the door.”