'It was very fast and vicious': Cork resident describes horror of watching her home flood

A resident from Copper Valley Vue in Glanmire has given a dramatic account of how a puddle at the outskirts of her estate became a deluge which poured in over flood barriers and into her home in the space of an hour, as Storm Babet combined with high tides to hit her community.

Speaking to The Echo, Aisling McEvoy said that she looked out at one stage and thought it was a tsunami, such was the sheer volume of water she was seeing.

“At 9.15am there was what I would call a puddle on the road just outside the estate, by 9.45am I could see that the water couldn’t pass under the bridge that was there and it was starting to come out onto the road and another half an hour after that it was coming into my house – I think we were the first house it hit.

“It was very fast and vicious, it was like a tsunami, it was surreal.” 

Aisling described how Cork City Council workers had come out the previous night as the water had come out on the road outside and they pulled up the drains and removed debris. 

They had said that there would be high tide in the morning at around 8.30am and they would come back and check to see what the situation was then.

When the Council workers came back at around 7.30am the next morning, everything looked perfect and shortly afterwards children started heading for school.

However, just a few short hours later it was a different scene. 

Flood barriers breached 

“My house was flooded before so we had flood barriers at the front and back doors, we had sandbags across the drive-way but the flood waters just got over them, they were knocked aside, it came in the drains, it came in through the vents in the washing machine and the dryer, it came up the toilets, it was so strong and powerful it started coming through the barriers.

“Once it came in I got every towel, every duvet, everything I could find in the house, I put them down inside the flood barriers. Once it came in, it was game over, so fast and probably double the amount of water of the last flooding.” 

She and her family never left the house and she said they could only watch helplessly as the water filled up, destroying furniture and electrical appliances.

“You would look out at that and you would actually think, is this the end of the world?

“Nobody could get to us. There were a couple of neighbours outside in my driveway, they had buckets and [were] throwing the water back out, they stayed there until they had to climb the walls themselves or they’d be putting themselves at risk.

“It just kept building – I do think that it was when Sars opened up their pitch and took the hit down there that it kind of gave a little bit of relief to us – the water didn’t get any higher.”

When it started, Aisling rang the fire brigade and reported what was happening but as they were at other incidents, and as there was no life in immediate danger, she said that there was nothing they could do.

The Fire Brigade came in the afternoon by which time Aisling and her partner had got pumps. They managed to clear the house of the water.

She said that the subsequent yellow rain warning on Thursday night, into Friday morning was another source of concern as they waited to see if there would be a repeat of the flooding. 

Support from the community 

Aisling had nothing but praise for her neighbours and local businesses for their support. 

“It’s the local people, we have that group, the Mums of Glanmire (Facebook group), and you put in a problem or that you need help and people run to help.

“The scouts brought food, Supervalu gave food, Apache gave food – local people who had a day off and came over to say, can we help you clean?” 

A local businessman, Ronnie Hennessy, donated two skips.

She was critical of Cork City Council. 

“On the Council side of it we’ve had nothing, we’ve had to beg for sandbags and we do have them tonight. We’ve no skip – in comparison to seven years ago when the last flood happened and we were under the County Council, and they were down the next morning cleaning, street cleaners and all, they were cleaning the flood from around the estate.

“The City Council forgot where we are.” 

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath paid a visit to their house along with other homes in the estate which were hit on Thursday, she said, but apart from that there was little to praise in the response from the authorities. 

The help came from their neighbours, friends and local people.

She said that now they are trying to assess the damage and see what could be salvaged. 

“The appliances are gone, the doors are gone, can we dry out a wet couch, can we try to suck the water out of a carpet?

“Where can we save, can we manage – can we go to sleep tonight, will it flood again?” 

The one hope they have is that the Government helps out with an emergency aid package.

“We so badly need that because, without it, I don’t know what we’re going to do.”