Storm Ciarán: Communities across Ireland brace for further flooding as storm arrives

Communities across the country are bracing themselves for further flooding on Thursday, many of them of them for the second day in a row, as Storm Ciarán starts to pass the south of the country.

In the south, Met Éireann issued status-yellow warnings for Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, Cork and Waterford, valid until Thursday morning. Communities across the south already hit by flooding, including Midleton, Co Cork, were hoping expected “intense falls of rain” would not set back the recovery.

The UK Met Office also issued a warning for Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry and warned heavy rain is expected to cause flooding and disruption to transport services in the North.

A Met Éireann spokesperson said Storm Ciarán had begun tracking to the south of Ireland with the brunt of the weather pattern to be felt in the UK and France. Rain was expected in the south and east.

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In the North Sinn Féin MLA Conor Murphy has said efforts to tackle the floods were being hampered by the lack of a functioning Northern Assembly. Politicians are “fighting with their arms tied behind their backs” for financial support for businesses damaged in floods in the North without a functioning Stormont, he said..

Parts of the eastern half of Northern Ireland have been hit with severe flooding following heavy rain, with Newry, Portadown and Banbridge among the areas worst affected.

Some 12,000 sandbags have been deployed against the waters.

In Newry, an estimated 80 businesses are counting the cost after the city’s canal burst its banks on Monday night, submerging sections.

Business owners in the city have spoken of the potential of hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of damage to their livelihoods because of the floods.

Amid the ongoing collapse of the Stormont Assembly, senior civil servants are running Government departments with restricted powers in the absence of ministers.

A cross-departmental group has been set up to co-ordinate central and local Government efforts to support people and businesses.

In terms of support, Mr Murphy said the household scheme is was in place, but they are were looking at what is was available for businesses.

“If Stormont was in place, I would have no doubt there would be several ministers in Newry yesterday and today assisting with the operation that is going on, but also turning their mind to collectively working together,” he said.

“Whether that’s happening in the near future or not, I don’t know. I know we’re up here today fighting with two arms tied behind our backs trying to get support for people and clearly the best situation would be if we had people in place in office to take decisions that can put schemes in place, that can get out on the ground and try to respond quickly.”

[ Q&A: What State support is available if your home or business is flooded due to storms? ]

In Newry, Paul McCartan, owner of McCartan Bros men’s wear store, estimated it would cost about £250,000 (€287,000) to repair and restock his shop.

Michael Nugent, owner of the Nugelato ice-cream parlour, is still counting the costs but estimated repairing the damage could cost up to £100,000.

He said: “This is the first day we have been able to access the shop, with the levels of flooding yesterday it was under a few feet of water. While the water has thankfully left our shop, it has gone down the road and there is still a big problem.

“For our shop, it’s going to be about salvaging what we can.”

“We didn’t have much warning, had we known we possibly could have got equipment and stock out.”

On Wednesday morning, the Department for Infrastructure said it remained on high alert through the night.

It received almost 800 calls to its flooding incident line and has distributed more than 12,000 sandbags to the areas worst affected.

A spokesperson said river and lough levels continued to be monitored as they rose and will would continue to be monitored over the coming days.

[ Over 30 flood-hit businesses apply for emergency funding in wake of Storm Babet ]

Meanwhile, a business representative group and a local development agency are teaming up to facilitate the faster administration of Government aid via the Irish Red Cross to assist businesses in east Cork flooded by Storm Babet to reopen in time for the Christmas market.

Midleton and Area Chamber of Commerce president Adrianna Hegarty said the clear feeling from a meeting of more than 70 business owners affected by the flooding was that they needed the Government compensation scheme offering up to €100,000 to businesses to be expedited as quickly as possible.

“Over 70 business owners attended the meeting in Midleton this morning and the clear message was that the compensation needs to be expedited as quickly as possible – there are just over seven weeks to Christmas and people need to get back on their feet quickly for the Christmas market.”

Ms Hegarty said it was to that end that the Midleton and Area Chamber of Commerce was teaming up with the local enterprise office (LEO) to help facilitate the Irish Red Cross faster administer more quickly the Government’s compensation scheme for businesses that have been affected by the floods.

“We are providing a space in the Chamber office on Main Street where the Red Cross, through the local enterprise office, will give us someone who will help people fill up their application forms, because every form has to be properly completed before they can be assessed for compensation.

“Some people at the meeting this morning were frustrated that the Red Cross had sent back applications because people hadn’t filled them in correctly, so we hope to ensure by teaming up with LEO that all applications will be correctly filled out and processed quickly.

“The scheme is paying out a maximum of €100,000 and that won’t be enough in some cases but if it is paid out quickly it will help many people back on their feet because they want to open and get their businesses going for Christmas because it’s this time of the year that they make money.”

“Historically, businesses in Midleton have been very resilient, and we owe a huge amount to our local community who were out once the flood waters receded to help – of course, we’re all just hoping now that Storm Ciarán bypasses Midleton and east Cork so we don’t have any repeat.”

The Government has asked the Irish Red Cross to administer an emergency business flood-relief scheme providing a once-off ex gratia contribution towards the costs of returning business premises to their pre-flooding condition, including replacing flooring, fixtures, fittings and damaged stock.

Almost 40 businesses have applied for emergency flood relief funding since Storm Babet battered the south of the country last month.

Some €50,000 has already been paid to five of the worst-hit businesses in initial tranches of €10,000 each, according to data provided by the Irish Red Cross (IRC).