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Council waiting on flood report

Thursday, 28 August 2008

WHEN it comes to weather, Dublin doesn’t do extreme. A grey, overcast sky is a familiar feature of the city. So a clap of thunder, a descending snowflake or even a naked sun can spur conversations of global warming and the end of the world.
But while the heavy rain and floods that hit Dublin this summer are unlikely to inspire any Hollywood blockbusters, they certainly have impacted on the lives of the people whose homes and shops were damaged by the deluge of water.
As residents and business owners on the Northside carry out the arduous task of cleaning in the wake of damage left by floodwater, it is only natural to ask: Could anything more have been done? Could it have been worse? And what is needed to prevent scenes like those seen over the past few weeks from occurring again?
A spokeswoman for Fingal County Council said that after receiving a flood warning from Met Eireann, the local authority activated its emergency plan and deployed every available roads and drainage crews, as well as key management staff, to deal with the flooding.
“However, the sheer level of rain that fell in such a short time was unprecedented,” she stated.
“At times of emergency such as this, crews and equipment are deployed to the areas where there is greatest need, and priority is given to areas where lives may be at risk.
“Stormwater drains, which are designed to deal with significant extra capacity at times of very heavy rainfall, were simply unable to cope with this excessive volume of water, leading to flooding in many places.
Pumping equipment and sandbags were used in Rush, Kinsealy, Swords, Loughshinny and Donabate to manage the flood waters.
Crews also worked on major national routes including sections of the M1, M50 and N3, which had been turned into rivers.
According to the council spokeswoman, crews worked closely with the emergency services such as the gardai and Dublin Fire Brigade, including ambulance services, as these would be the lead agencies in an event such as this.
“Our crews would have then responded to the areas identified by the gardai and Dublin Fire Brigade as being a priority,” she added.
Emergency services dealt with over a thousand calls concerning flooded houses and businesses, and widespread disruption caused by flooded road networks, particularly the national road network.
“It isn’t known yet what the cost of the flood damage has amounted to,” stated the council’s spokeswoman.
“We are waiting on a full report to come back from the various departments such as Transportation and Water Services who dealt with the recent flooding.”
The council’s drainage and transportation teams will prepare a detailed report.
“This report will look in detail as to how the council responded and where we can improve our response in future to these extreme weather events,” said the spokesperson.

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