Athlone flood defences keep river Shannon at bay

“We reckon there’s 500 cubic metres of floodwater going through the town per second,” said Westmeath County Council’s director of services for Athlone, Barry Keogh, as he peered at his computer screen.

He was preparing for yesterday morning’s meeting of the town’s flood response co-ordinating committee, which he chairs. “That’s about 110,000 gallons per second,” he added.

The marvel is that just nine homes have been flooded within Athlone and its hinterland under the council’s jurisdiction. The untold story of the floods blighting Athlone is one of an extraordinary victory against the odds thrown up by nature.

According to the public employees, volunteers and residents who have coped with flooding since December 5th, it has been won by learning the lessons of earlier disasters and putting in place plans and structures that have worked.

“We were up at three figures [of homes flooded] in ’09,” recalled Garda Inspector Aidan Minnock, a member of the committee. “So it’s a wonderful improvement; a huge win.”

The figure of just nine homes flooded emerged at yesterday’s meeting of the co-ordinating group. It includes the Garda, Civil Defence and Defence Forces, various council sections, the Health Service Executive, Irish Water and the Department of Social Protection. Until recently it met daily, but it has scaled back to every second day.

Keogh well recalls the 2009 floods when the Shannon rose to 50cm above any recorded previous flood, with the result that large tracts of the town and a huge number of homes and businesses were flooded.

“I can’t believe we’re at that [level] again,” he said, adding that the current river height is between 2cm and 5cm above the 2009 level and yet only a handful of business premises have been flooded.

Faster response

The major lesson of the 2009 flooding was that the response next time would have to be faster and from the outset involve all relevant disciplines. This winter’s flooding began with rain on December 5th and 6th. Athlone knew immediately what was coming.

“The committee met on December 7th in the immediate aftermath of Storm Desmond and the river was rising rapidly,” said Keogh. “So we immediately mobilised and put a response in place – pumping, temporary defences like sandbags and providing people with information, transport and accommodation.”

Since then, 79 homes have been evacuated because of the threat of flooding, 41 of which have since been reoccupied. Sixty-four homes have been cut off by floodwater in places such as Golden Island and Carrick O’Brien, and adjoining lands on the east bank of the river, south of the town. A total of 130 homes are under threat of flooding but have been saved by a huge network of sandbag levees, often laid on plastic sheeting, and invariably supported by pumping operations.

“It’s a fantastic result,” said Keogh, “and that’s down to the efforts on the ground – the homeowners and the services too. What has been demonstrated is that it is possible to defend Athlone.”

A tour of the defences in the company of Lieut Col Dave Goulding, commanding officer of Six Battalion based at Custume Barracks, his colleague Comdt George O’Connell, and platoon commander, Lieut Aislinn Kelleher, proves the point.

At numerous locations – the Strand and quays opposite; Golden Island and River Meadow; Bastion Quay and the adjacent areas of Parnell Square, Lyster Street, Deerpark Road, Canal Walk, Millbank and the Park – sandbag levees up to 1.2m high hold back a bloated river while pumps suck floodwater out of drains, spewing it back into the river.

The river, its natural banks now in places 3-4.5m below water, is within touching distance of dozens of homes but the extraordinary volume of water is being held back.

Lieut Kelleher’s platoon, nicknamed the Blue Light Platoon, is on permanent standby. As we tour, a town engineer calls her: a home needs more protection. The Blue Light sandbaggers are dispatched immediately.Troops are also staying in cut-off homes, manning the pumps to give residents a night off.

Brian Gillen of the Civil Defence hopes the worst is over. “We’re stable now. We’ve been looking for the peak and we may have had it.”