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Massive flooding leaves much of Ireland underwater in latest storm

Government blamed for poor response to massive flood damage

JAMES O'SHEA,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Saturday, March 23, 2013, 7:34 AM

Updated Saturday, March 23, 2013, 7:46 AM

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Massive flooding has hit areas all around Ireland as a Spring storm wreaks havoc from coast to coast.

Massive flooding has hit areas all around Ireland as a Spring storm wreaks havoc from coast to coast. Snowstorms lashed Northern Ireland leading to 35,000 power outages.

Irish leader Enda Kenny was forced to comment on the floods following criticism even as he was concluding a business trip to America.

“There has been extensive and heavy rainfall, and obviously this is a matter that has to be managed properly.

“Every local authority has its plan for exceptional weather events. I hope not too many people have been discommoded or have had to be moved out, and it is a case of the local authority managing this effectively and as quickly as they can,” he said.

Cork was badly hit, said Chamber of Commerce CEO Conor Healy.

Speaking to the Irish Times, he said: “Businesses in Cork have been badly impacted by flooding and it's happening now on a fairly regular basis. Blackpool has been hit for the second time in nine months and the system has been unable to take the water flow.

“The result is that businesses are four feet underwater within a very short period of time. People and businesses are very much losing patience in terms of solutions being provided to help mitigate what's been happening over the past few years.

“This is where the authorities need to step in and recognise that there is a serious problem. There doesn't seem to be any urgency, particularly within the OPW to address this situation.

“Businesses are paying substantial commercial rates every year to ensure that services are delivered by the local authority. They are very frustrated and wondering why is this continuing to happen and why are they paying substantial rates for services they are not getting."

The M11 motorway in South Dublin was closed leading to "tremendous chaos" according to the AA spokesman Conor Faughnan. "It caused tremendous chaos in the morning commute and there were knock-on effects of enormous traffic delays right around the south side of Dublin.

"At one stage today we had reports of three hour commutes to get from Ballybrack to Bray, which is pretty horrendous.”

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14 Comments

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Smyrnian | Mar 25, 2013, 10:38 AM EDT

Steven - please knock off the negativity. You are embarrassing yourself and boring the rest of us!

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seanomelb | Mar 24, 2013, 06:58 PM EDT

Poor old stevenstar I doubt if he has ever travellred outsidewest Cork. I remeber snow in dublin in April many years ago albeit it was only a light fall.Cork is a beautiful place Steven don't put people off with your silly comments.

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IrelandNorth | Mar 24, 2013, 04:19 PM EDT

Read somewhere sometime ago that the world is no longer just moderately rotating around the sun through nights and days, with a mild tilting accounting for seasons, but actually wobbling fairly erratically if viewed from afar. Apparently all the accumulative effect of 300 yrs of industrial revolution and scientific advances. And they said the Native American/Australian Koora/and New Zealand Maori's were savages? Give me indigenous peoples every time.

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STEVENSTAR | Mar 24, 2013, 03:37 PM EDT

IM IN IRELAND IN CO.CORK WE DONT HAVE ANY SNOW AND ONLY SOME SHOWERS TODAY I FIND THIS HARD TO BELIEVE!! IS THIS MORE CLAP TRAP FROM IRISH CENTRAL

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cillowen | Mar 23, 2013, 11:25 PM EDT

the yearly floods that hit and no attempt at a fix by their roaming the world political hacks/sharks, is shameful. Get mitt the dutch stupidos.

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Scouse Tony | Mar 23, 2013, 10:23 PM EDT

We get a couple of inches of snow and everyone goes into a panic, most of it will be gone by Monday. I've spent time in Canada and Norway where it really snows and what we got was a light dusting in comparison mind you this time last year I was leaving my coat at home.

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Gordan Duggan | Mar 23, 2013, 09:10 PM EDT

At least it's not snowing yet but it is where I'm going tomorrow -CANADA. However, its badly snowing in Britain. A bride in Yorkshire had to be carried from the car to the church but she seemed to be laughing about it. A wedding she and her bridegroom will never forget.

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seanomelb | Mar 23, 2013, 05:58 PM EDT

Misswhisp you are self deluding. I think you should read more scintific journals and leave the bible on the shelf. Australia has added a new colour to its meteorological chart (purple) to record the days over 40 degrees(celsius). WE need a couple of heavy rainfalls in Victoria.

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IrelandNorth | Mar 23, 2013, 02:54 PM EDT

Frosty38! RTE 6:01pm TV News this evening just reported that weather is expected to last for another week -into Apr. CitizenWhy! You're bang on the money. If things keep going the way they are in Cyprus (a proximal, if warmer, comparator to Ireland), there may yet be agitation for a return to the púnt (poont) (ie IR£). antoman! Cork's Blackpool has gotten a hammering in recent years. In fact, Ulster and Munster provinces have been particularly badly hit, though the Dublin to Wexford motorway was badly flooded last night, with landslides from Wicklow mountains. bunkerhill! Iceland disappeared from the fleeting topicality news facination after Ajafjalljokhul blew. Good point about volunteers. Bocktherobber! An early Irish Christian, Saint Malachy, predicted that Ireland would be semi-submerged towards the end of time, Atlantis like. Don't think he mentioned immigrants.

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Bocktherobber | Mar 23, 2013, 12:12 PM EDT

Nobody blaming immigrants yet? Something's gone badly wrong here.

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bunkerhill | Mar 23, 2013, 10:32 AM EDT

We hope June will be nice when we arrive. You can't do much about the weather. At least it not volcanos like the poor Icelanders. Did anyone ever offer to give them a hand as usually happens in the rest of the world? We heard a lot of complaining from air passengers around the world about the ash but we are sure the Icelanders didn't deliberately blow it their way. Hope the weather in Ireland clears up soon. I think we got the last plane and hotel reservations for June.

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antoman | Mar 23, 2013, 10:02 AM EDT

Once again the people of Blackpool, Cork have been flooded and again via the radio they have been asked not to let their children play in the water. The radio DJ adding the little sticks of chocolate floating in the water are not actually chocolate but something that fell from a dogs back pocket.

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CitizenWhy | Mar 23, 2013, 09:15 AM EDT

If Ireland had its own currency, it could devalue it (keeping spending in the country, making imports expensive, exports cheap). Then the government could print money and start a a big infrastructure improvement/jobs program. No problem with inflation as long as the money is spent in Ireland. Plus income tax revenues would go up (relative to spending). There also would not have been all that real estate speculation since it was due to german baks making massive loans to privately owned Irish banks which pushed all that money out on an economy too small for such a massive cash infusion (in the form of bank debut, which Europe forced the IIrish government to pay back, giving it no money to invest in its own country).

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Frosty38 | Mar 23, 2013, 09:04 AM EDT

I leave for Ireland in 2 and 1/2 weeks. Is this a good thing it happened now. I feel very bad for the folks it is as bad as New England snow this year. It will impact the economy.

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