With the emergency response room finally closed today following round the clock operations at County Hall, services are somewhat returning to normal for most.
However, it is not all good news as the new challenges facing householders and business owners today are all concerning water or the lack thereof.
With most of the county’s roads finally cleared of frost and ice, driving conditions have somewhat reverted to normal, but some homes and businesses are still without water in the best of cases and are flooded in the worst of them.
Although, the emergency response room at Kilkenny County Council has been closed the council is now attempting to deal with the issue of water, flooding and burst pipes as best as it can.
Philip O’ Neill of Kilkenny County Council told the Kilkenny Advertiser that due to lack of demand, the distribution of water by the fire service has been suspended.
“There will be no water distribution from the fire stations or from the stand pipes in the villages from now on, however, water tanks will remain in place today (Friday ) at; The Sycamores, Glendine, Springfields Estate, Shandon Park.”
He called on people to use water sparingly or water restrictions may need to be implemented as has happened in other counties.
Mr O’ Neill added that the situation was being reviewed on a daily basis and he invited people to visit the website for up-to-date posts on problems and repairs at www.kilkennycoco.ie
Community response
Much has been discussed about the community response to the Arctic freeze that took over our lands for the past few weeks and although circumstances were difficult to say the least, it appears that it brought the best out in people.
The Civil Defence was out in force and manned an emergency help line at the emergency response room at the council for those finding themselves stranded or without, food, water, heating or medical supplies.
Ray Regan of the Civil Defence said, “we dealt with many calls from people in need in rural areas. We were able to deploy our 4x4s and ferry them whatever resources they required. For many elderly people it was nice for them just to see a friendly face. They were emotional when we arrived, and we were just delivering water or medicine. We have made about 100 trips in all this week,” he said.
The army, was also helping out with the collection of 3,000 litres of water from Borris-on-Ossory earlier this week and with the delivery of this water to areas in Kilkenny that were without.
County manager Joe Crockett agreed that there had been a remarkable community response to the issues related to the big freeze.
“The integrated community response involving the local authorities, HSE, the fire services, the civil defence, has been second to none. There has been remarkable community spirit and people have been extremely helpful to neighbours and to strangers. All the sectors have been working together to help those in need.”
There were over 600 calls received by the emergency helpline at the council alone this week with over 80 per cent of those calls related to water. It’s hoped all water services will be restored by the weekend.
