By Ralph Riegel

Copyright independent

A rally was staged outside Cork County Hall on Monday by the Midleton and East Cork Flood Protection Group.

Residents are worried that proper flood defences might not be installed in the area for another 10 years.

They said flood defences should be a top priority for the council and that too little has been done to protect against a repeat of Storm Babet.

The group said it was a miracle no one was killed two years ago when homes were swamped by flood waters, which rose to chest height in a matter of minutes.

Flooding was so sudden during Storm Babet that several people, including a pregnant woman, were trapped in a beauty salon on Midleton’s main street. They managed to escape out a back door and over a wall minutes before the front window collapsed under the weight of the water.

In a handful of cases, people were swept off their feet by the rising water, and many were saved by their neighbours.

Hundreds of homes were flooded with water from drains, sewers and septic tanks.

Campaigner Caroline Leahy said people in east Cork cannot continue to live in fear of another flood.

“We need the council to act and act fast,” she said.

“It is nearly two years on from Storm Babet and we are still as exposed to such severe flooding as we were in October 2023.

“We are here today to underline to the council that we are still here, we are not going away and we will not be forgotten about.

“We are not going to sit around waiting for the next flood to destroy our homes and our businesses and literally to threaten our lives.

“Very, very little has improved over the past two years.

“There has been a small industrial sandbag wall in one housing estate. There has been a small amount of dredging, but, other than that, there has been more reports, assessments and surveys.

They do not even have start dates for their flood projects

“Areas outside of Midleton such as Castlemartyr, Mogeely, Killeagh and others are sitting and waiting – they do not even have start dates for their flood projects.

The Midleton flood (defence) scheme is possibly 10 years away from being completed and for what we face in Midleton, that is simply not good enough.”

Cork County Council is expected to lodge a planning application for the €60m Midleton Flood Relief project next year.

In the interim, €5.8m in funding has been provided for individual property protection (IPP) measures such as flood gates for vulnerable properties. Almost 1,000 properties in Midleton are considered to be vulnerable to flooding.

The town is not expected to have its flood defence scheme completed and fully operational until 2031.

Design consultants for the project, Arup, have already been appointed.

Council crews have increased inspections and clearance of drains and culverts in the wake of Storm Babet.

Last October, the council and the Office of Public Works (OPW) outlined the planning route for the scheme.

“Cork Co Council is progressing a number of other important interim flood mitigation and defence works for Midleton and east Cork which are designed to reduce the impact of flooding in advance of the main scheme for these communities,” a council spokesperson confirmed.

More than €150,000 was also provided for flood mitigation works for Castlemartyr and Killeagh in advance of major schemes.

Some properties have been offered flood gates, while drains and culverts have been kept free.

However, residents said that is insufficient to cope with any repeat of Storm Babet.

Residents also said that, had the October 2023 rainfall coincided with high tide, the town would have faced a catastrophe, with flood waters potentially two metres higher.

Storm Babet inflicted unprecedented damage on Midleton and Cork, with estimates of the cost of repairs and business losses reaching €200m.

In Midleton and its surrounding area alone, over 600 homes and 300 businesses suffered devastating damage. Some properties took months to repair.

It was the second major bout of flooding to hit Midleton after damage following torrential rainfall and high tides in 2015.

Storm Babet, which hit over October 17 and 18, 2023, dumped record rainfall amounts over parts of Ireland. Some areas received three months worth of rain in less than 48 hours.

Even in the summer, you are worried about the coming winter

Midleton suffered devastating damage as rivers broke their banks and culverts could not cope with the deluge.

Ms Leahy said people should not have to live in fear.

“We worry about it with every forecast of heavy rainfall,” she said.

“It never goes away. Even in the summer, you are worried about the coming winter and what type of heavy rainfall it might bring.

“It is hanging over us all the time. We worried for our lives with what we faced with Storm Babet. It wasn’t a little bit of water coming in the door. It was an apocalyptic level of rainfall. The flooding was terrifying and we cannot face that again.”

Among the flood campaigners from east Cork were Catherine Power, Adrienne Sheehan, Kieran Goldspring, Vivienne Jeffers and Pat Ryan.