Category: News

UP TO 14 homes approximately two miles south of Quilty were evacuated during the early hours of Friday morning, as the sea engulfed their homes.

Families living in the coastline houses, some less than 10 years old, broke down yesterday (Monday), as they recalled how they may never again be able to return home so severe is the damage.

Older members of the Tromoroe Castle, Seafield, community whose homes were also flooded in the storm are reportedly terrified of going home again, as a section of land mass has been taken by the unforgiving sea.

This makes the properties very vulnerable according to construction worker Danny McCarthy who was one of the people evacuated.

“The water has gone into the houses and they are afraid of their lives that the sea will break and the ocean will go into them now. We are vulnerable now because the body on the land is gone, it is pulled out to sea and we are open,” he told The Clare People .

“We didn’t expect it,” he said add- ing that the majority of the homes were occupied at the time of the storm.

Debris from the sea continued to float around the rooms of some houses as neither the wind or the sea was ready to relent. There was a great sadness and anger in the community who felt that their plight had been overlooked over the past few days.

“Do you know the saddest thing about it? It felt like we were on our own. No publicity or anything, or no highlights at the amount of destruction created here,” he said.

“Fourteen houses have been affect- ed. Half of my land is gone,” said Mr McCarthy.

Half of the wall at the three and a half year old council water pumping system has also been eroded.

It will take thousands and perhaps millions to repair the physical damage the community maintain, but it will take much more than that to repair the psyche of a community now exposed to the whims of the sea.

Questions have also been raised regarding plans to reinforce the coastline as far back as 2011, if they had been carried out, would the damage have been so severe.

UP TO 10 metres of the land bank of the five star Doonbeg Lodge and Golf Course was lost to the Atlantic Ocean during the weekend storm.

“We got a right bashing but we are living to tell the tale,” said General Manager Joe Russell, who was confident that the Greg Norman-designed golf course would be playable again by Thursday. The picturesque resort was at the mercy of the high winds gusting up to 120 kilometres an hour, but the superintendents at the course were confident that all damage could be repaired.

“We have lost some land back into the ocean, but we have 18 holes in play. It has thrown up a lot of debris from the ocean but that does not affect play,” said Mr Russell.

He said that a clean up is been planned for tomorrow (Wednesday) once the full damage has been assessed and the weather monitored.

The high tides have also taken a few metres of sand from the dunes, which will naturally repair themselves in time.

Mr Russell has warned however against walking over the dunes however as there is now a sheer drop on one side, almost like a cliff, which is extremely dangerous.

MONITORING of sections of the River Fergus described, as a “concern” will continue in Ennis after the town was spared the worst affects of flooding.

Water levels peaked in the river on Saturday after heavy rainfall on St Stephen’s Day sparked fears of a repeat of the widespread flooding that hit the town in December 2009.

On that occasion residential areas and parts of the town centre suffered major flood damage when the river burst its banks.

Ennis Town Council says that while river levels were “significant” in recent weeks, they were below those recorded during flood events in 1999 and 2009.

Senior executive engineer with Ennis Town Council, Eamon O’Dea explained, “If we have no heavy rainfall over the next two to three days, it will drop off. The Fergus peaked two days ago, but if you look at levels in Ballyalla Lake, it is slowly starting to decline.”

However the council, working alongside Clare County Council and the Office of Public Works are implementing precautionary flood measures along the lower section of the Fergus, below Knox’s Bridge.

“The Ennis area is at a precautionary level. We are implementing measures such as over-pumping at different locations on the lower River Fergus. We have one or two areas of concern along the lower section,” Mr O’Dea said.

Spring tides did result in brief flooding on a section of the old N18 road in Clarecastle on Friday morning.

Work on phase two of the Ennis Flood Relief Scheme between Bank Place Bridge and Doora Bridge is ongoing at locations around Ennis.

It is anticipated that when completed, the works will lead to the protec- tion of 849 residential and 425 nonresidential properties on completion.

Defences including enhanced river walls, pumping stations and new drainage systems are included in the project, which is aimed at protecting Ennis against a 100-year flood event.

Works carried out during phase one at Mill Road and Woodquay are credited with preventing widespread flooding of Ennis town centre in 2009.

Though it is thought the works so far prevented major flooding in the town centre, the exact areas to have directly benefited from the improved defences will not be known until the scheme is certified as completed by the OPW.

Under the latest scheme of works, new ramps and walls are to be constructed at the two entrances to Clare Mart, while a new wall is to be constructed at the rear of properties between Aldi and Clonroad.

AT AROUND 6.30am on Friday morning John O’Connor grabbed his two children and ran upstairs to safety.

It was pitch dark, so all the young family knew for certain was that there was water waist high in their home.

The former Kilmurry Ibrickane footballer’s family were terrified, and unsure himself what had just happened, he called his next door neighbour Danny McCarthy.

It was only then that Danny realised that the sea had engulfed the homes along the coast road at Tromoroe Castle, Seafield. He waded through the water, which was now waist high on a man, and towards the next-door house. The whole of the downstairs of the house, which had just been fitted with a new extension, was under water.

“We didn’t know was the sea still coming because we were up to our waist because it was dark. It was frightening. It was terrifying for the children,” said Mr McCarthy.

“John, his wife and the children were up stairs and that is what saved them. This really, really was seri- ous.”

The men called the Kilkee Coast Guard, who brought a raft in the front door and took the children to safety.

“Since then I can’t sleep or nothing,” said a very upset Mr O’Connor, who has still not been able to return home as the sea continued to break on the back of his house, his gardens and the nearby field he had transformed into a football pitch for his children gone.

“The kids keep asking when will they go back into their house, I don’t know will we ever be able to go back in,” he added, the enormity of the situation hitting home.

Danny and his partner and daughter were also evacuated, and he remains hopeful the sand bags will safe some of the rooms from the flooding.

He praised the work of the Kilkee Coast Guard.

“They were here in half an hour. They gave us confidence and a sense of security,” he said.

The local community of Kilmurry Ibrickane has also rallied around offering sheltered to those displaced with the natural disaster.

LAHINCH businessman Antoin O’Looney, who was pinned by raging waves against the wall of his bar for almost half an hour on Friday morning, braved the elements again last night to protect his business through the last of the storm.

Mr O’Looney, who owns O’Looney’s Bar on the Lahinch Promenade, risked his life in the early hours of Friday morning to enter his premises, which had been breached by the storm.

Just after 6am on Friday, he tried to enter his premises but became trapped as heavy waves and storm surges pinned him against the outside wall of O’Looney’s Bar and Restaurant.

“I ran over but I was pinned to the door, I couldn’t get in. The waves were so powerful, I was pinned there for about 20 or 25 minutes. If I had stepped out to try and get in any of the door I would have been swept away; it was that big. There is a wal kway between our two buildings on the prom; the water in that walkway was up to chest level at this time,” he said.

“The storm had popped the two front door of the bar. So in came the water, which covered the bar area and then it filled up the basement. The crew from the fire brigade helped me to close back the doors and secure them.

“They [the fire brigade] were incredible. Within an hour or two hours they had the basement fully pumped out. There was a lot of damage done, especially to the electronics. The basement contains the public toilets, the prep kitchen and the offices and there were a lot of computers, cameras, alarms, things li ke that which were severely damaged.

The storms is the worst to hit Lahinch in recent years and has been described by many as a Perfect Storm.

“It was a combination of three different things: you had a very high spring tide, which is a 5.2 metre tide; you had a very strong gale behind it; and you had a massive surf running as well. Those three things rarely happen altogether, and when they do they can cause savage distraction,” he said.

“I don’t remember a storm li ke this ever. It’s funny though, this building has been built to withstand a lot of punishment and only for the doors opening I would have come out of this scot-free.”

Mr O’Looney said last night that he plays to ride out the remainder of the storm in his premises.

“I will be here tonight [Monday night] for sure. I need to. If anything breeches and you can get to it quickly and stop 80 per cent of the water from getting in, you can save yourself a lot of trouble in the long r un.”

A LUCKY young surfer has a miracle escape on Thursday evening after getting into difficulty in the waters off Lahinch, just as the storm began to hit.

The Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard and the Irish Coast Guard Helicopter were tasked to investigate a report of someone in the water just after 5pm on Thursday evening. A search of the bay and shoreline revealed nothing and no surfers was reported missing as the storm began to touch ground after 6pm.

However, minutes after the search was stood down, a surfer was washed ashore on the promenade. The surfer was treated at the scene by coast guard and transported to hospital where he was treated for hypothermia.

“The sea washed him on the promenade and he was able to climb up the last bit himself. It was a pure miracle. He was very very lucky, his stars were certainly out that night,” said Matty Shannon of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard.

“He had a few bumps and bruises but, considering what he come through, he was very very lucky.”

The Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard responded to a large number of emergencies over the storm weekend. They assisted local fire services on Friday morning to help evacuate people from Lahinch. They also help the Irish Coast Guard with a number of evacuations in the Quilty area on Friday afternoon.

According to Matty, it is very rare to get two such powerful storms one after another.

“In 1991 we had a similar storm to this and before that there was something similar back in ‘63. I suppose every 20 or 30 years we get a storm like this, but not two of them in a row like we’ve just had,” he said.

THE face of Whitestrand beach in Miltown Malbay could be changed forever as the weekends storm ripped away a 50-year-old sea wall and washed large sections of the beach and nearby land into the sea.

According to local landowner Noel Shannon, the beach and surrounding areas have been left devastated after this once-in-a-hundred-year storm.

“It is absolute devastation up here at the moment. The sea wall has been washed away and caravans have been hit and damaged. Most of the sea front at the Whitestrand has been wash away and the rest is covered with rocks. I was just there this minute [Monday morning] and the place is a disaster,” he said.

“The biggest issue is the concrete sea wall, which has been just swept away. I’ve never seen anything like it. That was was holding the sea back; it’s been there for 40 or 50 years.

“There has been a lot of attention for other areas, and rightly so, but the Whitestrand is a very popular spot for young swimmers and for lifeguard training and it needs to be looked at and given some attention.”

Mr Shannon, who operated the nearby Whitestrand Caravan Park, and says that he has lost a considerable amount of the land to the storm – with massive waves simply washing sections of land into the sea.

“There is a lot of ground lost to the sea and there is an awful lot of work that needs to be to done to get the Whitestrand up and going for the tourism season. Parts of my land are no longer there anymore, they have washed into the sea,” he said.

“The council [Clare County Council] were out to us over the weekend but there is not a lot can be done until the storm blows over.”

THE most tragic event of this weekend storms took place in Lahinch where a brand new playground, built using money raised locally over more than a decade, was virtually washed away overnight.

The playground, which has been open for less than two years, sustained massive damage during the storm which ripped up all the protective matting, collapsed walls and the creation of a six-foot deep crater.

The playground was yesterday described as a “war zone” by local woman and member of the Lahinch Playground Committee, Nicola Hartigan-Downes.

“It is devastating. We invested so much time and effort into this playground and it was just wiped out in 24 hours. We’re back to the drawing board now.

“It is like a war zone. It’s like someone came in and dropped a crater right on top of it. There is a whole on the ground that you could fit a six-foot man into, all of the rubber mats have been lifted, fences and the gate have been knock. A lot of the equipment seems to be okay, we haven’t had an assessor out to it yet, but hopefully it will be okay. But we don’t know.

“The Clare County Council bottle banks were washed from one side of the playground right through to the other; we’re not sure what damage that might have done. It’s total devastation, the whole of the ground has been lifted off the playground.

“The playground is under water at the moment [Monday afternoon], so we don’t know what new damage has been done. All we can do is wait and see.”

The Lahinch Playground Committee held an emergency meeting last night and say they are determined to get the playground open again as soon as possible.

“We are moving on this straight away, we want the playground back up and running for the season. We had a lot of positive feedback from local businesses people and residents to say that they are behind us 100 per cent and they will be there with funding and manpower to help us out,” continued Nicola.

“We’re meeting tonight [Monday night], to see what the next step will be and we will we working on this straight away after that.”

MORE than € 100,000 worth of damage has been inflicted on Lahinch Seaworld which will remain closed to the public until further notice. The facility was hit with a severe flood on Friday morning as flood waters from Lahinch Golf Club and the Liscannor Road Car Park, overflowed into its control room – severely damaging both the structure of the building and the swimming pools facilities.

Manager of Lahinch Seaworld, Joe Garrihy, said that his team are work ing hard to get the facility up and running as soon as possible.

“We have extensive damage to our plant room, to the boiler house, to the cinema and the multi purpose hall. The big systems in the plant room and the boiler house, like the heating system for the pool, had been submerged in about three foot of water. So that is a big problem,” said Mr Garrihy.

“The flood actually came from the Golf Club side. There was so much flooding in that area that it eventually flooded down to ourselves. So we had it coming at us from both directions.

The damage comes at the worst possible time for Seaworld, as this is their busiest time to secure new members for the gym and pool.

“We need to reopen again as soon as possible. This is the busiest part of the year for people in the fitness sector, so it is a big blow. We are going to be closed until next Monday [January 13] at least,” continued Joe.

“Once the heating is off it can take as much as much as a week to get the water to heat up again and to get the water filtered properly. We are targeting that week at the moment but we can’t say for sure.

“We need to be back up and running soon. We service around 30 school in the North Clare area and they need somewhere to swim. Membership is our core business, and if they don’t have somewhere to go they will either go somewhere else or give up on out new years resolution.

“We are all really determined to get this back on track. We have had a great response from the public – local people and people from all over the country. Everyone is really determined to get this back on track and I’d like to thank everyone from all their support.”

THE Lahinch Promenade will be reopened to the public later this week with repair crews from Clare County Council set to begin work on the battered site this morning, January 7.

The promenade felt the brunt of this weekend’s unprecedented storms with millions of euro worth of damage being inflicted in just 48 hours. A combination of storm tides surging underneath the promenade itself and 40-foot waves crashing over it inflicted major damage to the sea wall and the structure of the prom itself.

Dozen of concrete slabs were lifted off the prom wall while large sections of iron railing, installed earlier this year by Clare County Council, were snapped and washed away. Despite the extensive damage, Clare County Council expect to be able to reopen the promenade before the weekend.

“The storm themselves are only beginning to die down at this stage as it is impossible to do any meaningful work in storm conditions. So, over the next few days we want to get in there and carry out the basic re- medial works that need attention and get the prom opened again as soon as possible. We would hope to be in a position to open the prom in a matter of days, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. To bring it back to the type of facility that it deserves to be will take major works,” said senior engineer with Clare County Council, Tom Tiernan.

“We have to put some sort of an estimate on what this is going to cost and make sure that this estimate is heard and considered and that we get the finding that we desperately need to carry out this work.”

The council has also committed to having Lahinch ship shape again before the start of the tourist season.

“The council are determined that Lahinch be up and running fully for the summer season. Nobody needs to be reminded that Lahinch is one of the jewels in the crown of Clare tourism and it needs to be up and running again for the summer season. The prom is one of the icon parts of the Clare tourism product and we want to be in a position where by that product is as good as ever come this summer,” continued Mr Tiernan.