‘I could see the pain on people’s faces,’ Cllr Danny Collins said as he walked through New Street, Main Street, Barrack Street and the quays in Bantry after unprecedented levels of rain led to 20 properties being flooded.
BY JACKIE KEOGH
The Independent Ireland councillor said a Met Éireann Status Yellow Rainfall warning was insufficient to prepare people for the damage that was caused after a period of intense rainfall coincided with a high tide.
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Cllr Collins praised Bantry Fire Brigade, which was mobilised within minutes and worked hard during the torrential downpour to pump water away from the low-lying areas of the town, especially the junction of Main Street and New Street.
But businesses and homeowners in Main Street and New Street were badly hit once again, while a business at Barrack Street and The Quays were flooded from the rear.
A spokesperson for Cork County Council confirmed: ‘The water appeared to be coming from both surface water coming down Bridge Street and High Street and also from road gullies and manholes which feed into the main culvert underneath the town.’
The spokesperson said Bantry Fire Brigade deployed three portable pumps, while the council’s own road services staff assisted in trying to keep the flood waters at bay. And it was only when the rain eased off that the Bantry Fire Brigade crews were able to return to the station shortly after 6am.
Angered by the delays in drafting and executing a flood relief scheme for the town, Cllr Collins said: ‘The 2031 date for that project is too far away for a town that has been repeatedly flooded in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and over the last two decades.’
He was also critical of the fact that Cork County Council could not give public representatives a delivery date for the project to upgrade the town’s subterranean culvert, a project that would alleviate flooding.
He cited St Colum’s GAA hall at Pearson’s Bridge, outside Bantry, which has flooded three times since last September, as one example of why silt and debris needs to be removed from local waterways.
Visibly angry and upset, he stated: ‘There is a huge level of frustration and anger in Bantry over the length of time it is taking to deliver the culvert and flood relief schemes for our town.’
