Council had 'no prior warning of an escalated risk' on weekend floods

The Director of Emergency Services said Donegal County Council received insufficient warning for the floods that caused havoc in the east of the county on Saturday evening.

Met Eireann issued a warning on Saturday at 6:36pm, with an expected onset time of 6:28pm, and Garry Martin said that the flooding was pluvial, where there was a significant amount of rainfall in a short period of time. 

Some 84mm of rain fell in east Donegal - mainly in Raphoe and Castlefin - on Saturday, which, to put into perspective, is more than the 80mm average for the month of July as a whole. 

“I don't say this defensively, had we known that there was an event emerging we certainly would have forward-deployed sandbags and other resources as we do quite regularly during the year,” Martin said. “They are impossible to predict, to plan for and forward deploy for.”

Martin accepted this explanation was not made to deter the need for flood relief schemes and recommended homeowners seek assistance from the Department of Social Protection (DSP) and the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment.

DSP support is available by contacting the National Community Welfare Contact Centre at 0818 607080, reference Donegal Flooding July 22,23, and the Humanitarian Assistance Scheme.

“While there had been persistent rain throughout the day on Saturday 22 July 22, Met Eireann weather warning alerting service advised of a Level Yellow rainfall warning for 13 counties including Donegal at 18.36 hours on Saturday with an expected onset time of 18.28 hours and running until 11.00 hours on Sunday,” read a Donegal County Council statement on the matter on Monday morning.

“There had been no prior warning of an escalated risk for anywhere in Donegal. It should be noted that yellow rainfall warnings are cautionary in nature and are frequent in Donegal and other counties.

 “Initial reports of flooding in the Raphoe, Castlefinn, Convoy and Killygordon areas were made to 999/112 at 19.40 hours. On foot of this fire appliances from Stranorlar and Letterkenny were deployed to Castlefinn. Subsequently and as a result of the extent of the incident emerged, further appliances were deployed from Buncrana, Milford, Strabane and Castlederg and a second Letterkenny appliance were deployed to Castlefinn.

"Separately Donegal Town Fire brigade was deployed to Convoy and Glenties Fire Brigade was deployed to Castlefinn to deal with emerging incidents there. Given the number of areas impacted by flooding events within the Deele and Finn Valley, the Roads Service mobilised staff from the Inishowen and Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District to assist staff from the Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District. 

"Roads staff distributed sandbags to householders and businesses, implemented measures to divert floodwaters where possible, closed roads that were damaged by flood waters pending assessment and co-ordinated with colleagues in the Fire Service and Civil Defence. 

"Roads Service staff commenced the clean-up and assessment operation on Sunday morning.  Bridges and culverts were inspected, debris was removed from roads and areas that will require more extensive repairs were secured.

“Civil Defence units were deployed from 20.04 hours to deploy additional sandbags, distribute same as necessary and support any response activities necessary, initially in Raphoe and subsequently in Castlefinn.

“The primary objective in the initial response was to ensure safety of persons at risk and to defend properties from flooding where it was still possible to do so. This was successful in a number of locations in Raphoe and Castlefinn.

“Clean-up efforts and assessment of extent of repairs were commenced on Sunday and will continue until completed. A minimum of 10 commercial premises and eight domestic properties were flooded to an extent based on Fire service reports but these numbers are subject to update in the coming days as all reports are collated.

“The Council has been in contact with The National Directorate for Fire & Emergency Management advising of the flooding incidents in the Raphoe, Castlefinn, Convoy, Liscooley and Killygordon areas last evening.

“The records gathered of the rainfall event show that an extremely high figure of 84mm of rain fell on Saturday, July 22.  The Council will be pressing for the two Office of Public Works flood relief schemes in Raphoe and Castlefinn to be advanced as quick as possible."

The effects of climate change, with mainland Europe currently experiencing extreme heat waves, means flooding is much more commonplace. The need for precautions to be put in place as soon as possible to protect homes and businesses was stressed by many quarters, with floods becoming more frequent. 

“Unfortunately, going forward, we speak about these events being one in 100 years, this is twice in our local authority we’ve seen flooding events in six years and the county isn’t ready for it, homeowners are not prepared and businesses are not protected,” said Cllr Johnny McGuinness. “We need to have a radical relook at what mitigation plans we can put in place.”

Cllr Liam Doherty said “flooding issues are getting beyond a joke” and Cllr Ciaran Brogan suggested setting up working groups in each municipal district within the county to review water courses.

A meeting with the Office of Public Works was proposed by John McLaughlin, Chief Executive of Donegal County Council, to discuss the areas and towns that are of particular ‘high risk.’