Midleton resident describes sleepless nights following flooding from Storm Babet

A RESIDENT whose home in Midleton’s Woodlands Estate was on the frontline when devastating floods swept through the east Cork town during Storm Babet two weeks ago has spoken of her sleepless nights since the incident.

Marie, who wishes to keep her surname anonymous, told The Echo that she felt emphasis appeared to be on support for businesses who are struggling to recover from the damage caused by the floods, and householders like her appear to have been forgotten.

She said that it was the second time her home was flooded.

“I’ve been down on my hands and knees, cleaning out all my own drains, flattening out sandbags and putting them on top of drains, I have a flood defence gate at the front and I’m just doing my best to mind myself,” she said.

One of the issues she faces, along with many others, is that local builders are extremely busy.

Such is her worry that she’s had two weeks of sleepless nights.

“I was like a zombie walking around – I had no sleep for two weeks, none – and for the first 48 hours I never went to bed at all because I was the only one stranded here.

“I said I’d send messages out when I could see my piers and the top of my railing again.”

Since the flooding hit more than two weeks ago, she said she couldn’t close any of the doors downstairs and one of them was so badly impacted, it can’t be moved at all.

“There was three feet of water,” she said.

“The last time it happened a couple of years ago, it only came in two or three inches, this time it was feet.

“It came in over my wellingtons in the kitchen, even on the second day.”

She managed to save a few small items of furniture and she was hopeful of saving two antique armchairs which she had had covered recently.

“I had a brand new dishwasher and washing machine – I never used the dishwasher and I used the washing machine only three times – they’re all gone out in the skip, it was horrific,” she added.

As with the traders in the town, the State is held by householders to be responsible for the current situation in that the lack of a flood relief scheme in Midleton means that insurance companies won’t offer cover against floods for homeowners.

Marie said that two welfare officers from the Midleton Department of Social Protection office had visited her home on Sunday last while she was at the height of cleaning the house.

“They were terribly nice girls and they said to me ‘we don’t even come in, we know, you don’t have to have any imagination’.”

The forms residents have been given to fill out to claim financial assistance are, according to Marie, very complicated to fill out as two quotations are needed for the work to help the householders restore their properties, but local builders are snowed under with calls from residents.

“We’re making calls and getting no response, it’s a disaster,” said Marie.

Her account of her struggles since the flood hit mirrors that of other householders in the Woodlands Estate and other householders throughout Cork who were hit by the Storm Babet flooding.

She also highlighted some safety issues near her home following the flooding.

“I’m living literally a couple of feet from the riverbank and the whole steel railing and cement has been literally knocked flat to the ground,” she said, pointing out that the danger was now that someone would come and get injured as the ground in the area was bound to have been impacted.

“If somebody should fall in, I sadly won’t be able to do anything to help them,” she said.

It also comes as Department of Social Protection figures disclosed last week that 468 payments worth a total of €259,640 have been made to Cork households, while three payments worth a total of €2,135 have been made to Co Waterford households.

Cork County Council were contacted for comment.