‘We had a river running through our bar’: Cork businesses and residents face flood aftermath 

BUSINESSES and residents in many parts of Cork City faced major cleanup operations today as a result of the sudden floods on Sunday.

Rivers of surface water ran through the streets of Blackpool at times and the Furniture Centre on the Watercourse Rd, owned by the Barry family, experienced not one but two bouts of flooding throughout the afternoon and evening, which caused upwards of €10,000 in damages to the shop floor.

“We were lucky we were here — we got to move everything out of the way... if it happened during the night it would be a lot worse,” said Evelyn Barry, adding that the torrential rains on Sunday were “unnatural”.

Despite a flood barrier, and all hands, buckets, and mops on deck to try and stem the tide, the flooding couldn’t be stopped, and Ms Barry said replacing flooring in the shop will likely cost in the region of €10,000 to €15,000 — and a history of flooding in the area means there’s no insurance policy to lean on.

A spokesperson for Cork City Council said the issue on Sunday had not “in most cases” been blocked drains but rather that the volume of rainwater falling was above the capacity of the city’s drainage network. Some 55mm of rain fell within a few hours, they said, almost four times more than the predicted 15mm.

But Ms Barry believes that the inadequate drainage in the area is “a lot of the problem”.

“The drains are all blocked outside. We had to go out and lift the drain and try to put the hand down and take all the stuff out of it, just to relieve it,” she said. 

“The drains are too small as well, they just can’t take that level of water coming down… it doesn’t even have to be the rain that we had yesterday, it could be a heavy shower and it’s nearly coming in the door. That shouldn’t be happening.”

Uphill from the Furniture Centre, on the next corner, the Gerald Griffin Bar usually escapes flooding unscathed, due to a 6in step at the doorway. Proprietor Paul O’Neill said Sunday’s flooding was the worst he’s ever seen, and water levels came closer to his door than ever before.

“This was probably the worst I’ve seen around that area ever, to be honest. It took a few kegs down the road that were outside the door. It was bad,” he said.

Mr O’Neill said much of Blackpool’s flooding is preventable, if drainage were to be “done right”.

“If drainage is not adequate for the amount of rainwater that’s falling, it needs to be, and it’s obviously not adequate or we wouldn’t have [flooding]… it doesn’t help that the drains aren’t fully operational either, with people only cleaning them the day after,” he said.

Glanmire 

Over in Glanmire, businesses in the low-lying Hazelwood Centre are also no strangers to flooding. Damage caused on Sunday has left the local library closed for the next few days, while business owners spent much of yesterday clearing away debris from the central carpark.

Kai Dong owns Café Beva and Apache Pizza, both of which were breached by floodwaters over the weekend. Mr Dong said the damage wasn’t too bad, but if it had rained any more, he and other business owners would have been “in trouble”.

“The drainage is bad. That’s the problem. The water came from up the hill and was flowing down, and the drain wasn’t fast enough to take the water out,” he said. 

“They really need to do something — any [flood] bigger than that and it’s going to be big trouble, and cause us to lose a lot of money. 

The weather is the same every year; storm season at the end of September and start of October is always going to happen… the council really need to clean up the drains or even test them to see how bad they are.”

Out in the carpark of the Glanmire shopping centre, city council personnel were clearing the coating of muck and debris left behind as the floods subsided. One Glanmire resident said the area had been left in a “complete mess”, and expressed concern for businesses seeking insurance in an area with recurring flooding.

Turner's Cross

Across the city, Michael Murphy of the Turner’s Cross Tavern told The Echo: “We had a river running through our bar for an hour-and-a-half, maybe two hours, on Sunday. We had 6in of floodwater in the bar, something which has never happened before here.”

Mr Murphy said the level of flooding was unprecedented in the area.

 “I’m speaking to fellas who are living here 60 and 70 years and to their knowledge, there has never been anything like this. Turner’s Cross is not a low-lying area as such.”

Mr Murphy said the bar had suffered extensive damage in the flooding. “Flooring damaged, sound equipment written off, timber walls damaged, furniture damaged, and at the moment we’re still assessing what damage is there, we still have to go through all that, but it’s not looking too promising anyway,” he said.

He said it was too soon to put an estimated figure on the likely cost of the damage to the pub. “It’s not looking good, there’s definitely a lot of work to be done anyway, and there’s a big week coming up, with Cork City playing at home, so it’s not ideal timing.”

One Turner’s Cross resident told The Echo she was trapped in her home at one point during Sunday’s flooding and feared the waters would rise further.

Margaret Barry, from Erin Terrace, said her house suffered extensive flooding, and she had spent over five hours mopping out dirty water. “My downstairs was flooded, the porch, the hall, the sitting room; it came in the backyard, in to the kitchen and it came up the shower drain and flooded the bathroom,” Ms Barry said.

“So I was mopping up from then until about quarter past ten last night. I was lucky in that I have tiles in the porch, but my timber floor in the back room, I’d say that’s damaged alright, that’s just kind of buckling and bubbling up, so I’ll have to get that replaced.”

Mr Murphy praised Cork City Fire Brigade, who he said had done great work during the flooding. Like the businesses in Blackpool and Glanmire, he believes inadequate and blocked drains were a factor in the flooding.

In a statement to The Echo, a spokesperson for Cork City Hall said the issue on Sunday had not “in most cases” been blocked drains but rather that the volume of rainwater falling was above the capacity of the city’s drainage network.

The spokesperson said that with more than 16,000 gullies in the city, it was not possible to clear every single drain before a severe weather event, but locations which are prone to flooding are checked.

The city can expect more heavy rain the in coming days; Met Éireann has issued a status yellow rain warning for Cork from 4am to 10pm on Wednesday and warns that “spells of heavy rain overnight Tuesday through to Wednesday night will lead to localised flooding”.