Some residents in County Wexford whose homes have been devastated by flooding are “not covered by insurance,” a local councillor has warned.
In an interview with Gript, Fianna Fáil Cllr. Barbara-Anne Murphy said that amount of rain was “really, really awful” and that many residents in Enniscorthy had been evacuated from their homes due to the floods.
“Many, many people whose the ground floor of their homes are flooded and many of those are the ones that have been evacuated during daylight hours today,” she said.
“But, I mean, they will have to go back at some stage to clean that up and to try to make it right, and some of them are not covered by insurance”.
The Enniscorthy councillor said that while the local authority is assisting, the scale of the damage means the community will need to rely on neighbors to help those in trouble.
Murphy described the scenes across the region as “absolutely appalling,” noting that water levels along the River Slaney have reached heights not seen in more than 60 years.
“You see the rivers have just out there spread across all the fields – there’s not a field. You can’t see green – all you can see is wide, wide river.”
She added that “people are frightened” and “don’t know what they’re going to do.”
“The schools have been advised to close again in Enniscorthy and Bunclody tomorrow because, you know, until the water levels go down, it’s just not safe to be out and about”.
The councillor also highlighted the impact on local commerce, reporting that one emergency response business in Bunclody had seen its staff trapped on-site since Tuesday night.
“We’re trying to see if we can get tractors to help them get in and out now because they can’t be expected to stay there all day,” Murphy said.
“There are people that are in trouble, there are people in huge trouble and we have to see what we can do to help them”.
Asked if the disaster was avoidable, Murphy suggested that even earlier deployment of sandbags “wouldn’t have been enough” to stop the surge.
She argued that the only way to protect homes and businesses in the future is to finish the long-awaited flood relief schemes in both Enniscorthy and Bunclody.
“It’s awful for people that are trying to get around and you could drive into a flood very, very easily,” she said.
Wexford was one of six counties placed under a Status Yellow rain alert today as Storm Chandra moved across the country.
As reported by RTÉ today, the River Slaney burst its banks this morning, leaving dozens of homes and businesses in Enniscorthy under several feet of water.
Met Éireann has warned that the risk of flooding remains high through Thursday, as rivers in the southeast are still rising and the ground is too saturated to absorb further rainfall.
