Nearly 60 houses in Athlone town have been rendered uninhabitable by floodwaters as the Shannon rose by over two feet (64cm ) in the last seven days and has now surpassed the previous highest ever water mark set in 1954 by more than 30cms (1ft ).
Another 40 homes in the rural hinterland have also been flooded and at least 19 families are being temporarily accomodated by the town council in local hotels.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen came to hear the residents’ concerns on Thursday morning (November 26 ) and did a walkabout of the most affected areas.
His first reaction was to praise the “wonderful community effort” of all the residents and emergency staff but cautioned against making any immediate decisions for the long term.
“Problems will be dealt with after immediate relief. Clothing, bedding, shelter are the priorities in the first instance,” he said.
“After the clean-up then we can assess the [bigger] problems. For some people things will get worse before they gets better.
“It’s going to be a day-by-day process. My job as Taoiseach is to come to these communities and tell them they’re our priority,” he said.
He hinted the already promised €10m in humanitarian aid would increase but said there was no point in making any application to the EU structural fund “until things get better”.
Over the last week, 80 members of the county and town councils’ outdoor staff have been on relief work along with gardai and the army. The council executive is meeting with both these agencies on a daily basis to update the situation.
The Defence forces, with 60 soldiers on rotating shifts, have set up a sandbag station in the grounds of the Shamrock Lodge hotel, as close as possible to the worst hit estates of The Park, Canal Walk, Clonown Road, Deerpark Road and Parnell Square.
At the second emergency meeting of the week on Wednesday evening (November 25 ) in the Shamrock Lodge, approximately 100 residents of the most afflicted estates voiced greatest concern about raw sewage and demanded temporary toilet facilities for the areas mentioned above.
At going to press, the council executive was to discuss this at its daily meeting this morning (November 27 ).
Also in the Shamrock Lodge on Wednesday evening, Sergeant Andrew Haran reassured the residents that rumours of looting were completely unfounded.
He told the meeting that one person, a known thief, had been arrested on Saturday and he felt that this might have started the scaremongering but stated: “There is no more occasion of crime than in ordinary times. There is no looting.”
“We’ve two jeeps and two boats and we’re patrolling as best we can all the abandoned areas,” he said.
He appealed to all attending if anybody knows of isolated people to let the Gardai know as soon as possible.
Cllr Aengus O’Rourke informed the gathering that the Athlone Flood Relief and Advice Centre was being set up by a number of local charities in the former Barratts shoe shop in the Towncentre where people could go for advice and provisions.
It is to be administered by St Vincent de Paul. (See below for relevant numbers ).
In one silver lining people in Athlone could be reassured about the quality and supply of drinking water in the town, according to local Director of Services, Mr Barry Kehoe.
“Any problems [with it] and we’ll notify the media immmediately,” he declared at the first emergency meeting this week on Monday (November 23 ).
He also wanted to reassure any residents in emergency accomodation would be continued to be cared for until after the clean-up.
Some of the statistics concerning the recent deluge are quite staggering.
At the lower lock gate on the weir, the difference between mean summer level and this week’s is a startling 12.5ft, or a little under 4m.
According to Met Eireann, almost four times the average November rainfall will have fallen on the seven Shannon-draining counties to the north of the town by the end of this month.
Despite the local branches of the public sector unions refusing to emulate their brothers and sisters in other stricken areas and postpone the strike as called for on Tuesday (November 24 ), most emergency cover was maintained in Athlone, as seen by the number of OPW and council staff working on riverside defences in their foul weather gear all day.
At the meeting last Monday, Mayor Mark Cooney offered his condolences to those who’d had their houses flooded as a “terrible tragedy” but praised the diligence and endeavour of the council workers who had worked through the worst of the emergency.
“All staff operated at capacity and as well as could be done,” he told the meeting.
“I don’t know if anything else could’ve been done.”
Eight areas on the west side - Parnell Square, The Park, Deerpark Road, Canal Walk, Iona Villas, The Docks, Clonown Road and Accommodation Road - have been affected.
The Strand, Leinster Terrace, Wolfe Tone Terrace, Carrickobrien, Clonbonny, Ballygowlan, Portlick, and Muckanagh were the areas most affected on the east side of the town.
The council has filled and delivered sandbags since last Saturday (November 21 ), including Tuesday (November 24 ), the day of the national public service strike.
The council engaged the services of two vacuum tankers to relieve the pressure on the drainage system in a number of the more severly hit neighbourhoods like Leinster Terrace at the bottom of Northgate Street.
Along with these measures, the council closed a number of the worst affected roads, now numbering 12, and set up the required diversions.
A 24-hour helpline has been in operation since last Saturday.
All the elected representatives were highly complimentary of the work done by the staff in the floods.
At the first meeting Cllr Boxer Moran, himself resplendent in such, asked Barry Kehoe if the town council could buy a number of pairs of waders in an effort to assist the evacuation of those “who’d be looking out their bedroom window at four in the morning wonderin’ when it’s goin’ to stop”.
He went on to compliment residents in the Willow Park area who made private efforts to remove the build up of refuse in the Al river which could have led to additional flooding out there.
Cllr Aengus O’Rourke suggested it might be a good idea to make sure all up-to-date road closure information be put up on the council’s website and Mr Kehoe agreed.
He went on to suggest that in the aftermath of the floods the council sits down and map out an emergency flood plan for the future.
“We can learn from the parts of the country which have had this more often recently - places like Clonmel,” he said.
Information and assistance can be got from any of the following:
Town Council (090 ) 6442100, Gardai (090 ) 6498550, Advice Centre (086 ) 1725418. Daily updates are available on www.athlone.ie
