The floods that came following Storm Desmond may have receded in some parts of the country, but the water has forced a family of six from Co Clare out of their home for Christmas.
Mike and Liz Hogan, their sons Mark (18) and Sean (17), and daughters Aoife (12) and Sarah (26), have conceded defeat to the deluge. Worse, they have been separated from one another, sharing space in relatives’ homes in Clare and Limerick.
It is three weeks since the floodwater began to surround their home in Clonlara. The family – who spent two weeks out of their home in 2009 during flooding – were evacuated to a hotel on December 9th, after water levels made journeys in and out of the home too dangerous.
“Aoife was asking us if she was getting presents underneath the Christmas tree, and I thought to myself, yeah, but it’ll be under someone else’s tree,” Mike Hogan said.
“I’d sleep on a clothesline,” he added, “but my only worry is my wife and my kids.”
Water levels have begun to drop over the past few days, prompting Ms Hogan to attempt to collect presents from their house last night.
Car swamped
However, after coming within metres of the house, the car was swamped and destroyed. Ms Hogan had to be rescued by Limerick City and County Fire Service.
“Liz is traumatised by it all,” Mr Hogan said. “We’ve had years of this down here. It’s very upsetting for the family.
Ms Hogan’s mother has offered them her home for Christmas Day for a few hours, so the family can have dinner and open their presents together.
Mr Hogan said that “it’s kind of strange. We’ll use the mother-in-law’s house for Christmas Day and then we’ll all have to move back to the three houses where we are staying. We’ll just have dinner and hang about and then just go.
“It’s a bit of a logistics problem if we all want to be together,” he said. “And, we’ve no car now.”
In Richmond Park, Limerick city, housing estates are blotted by skips full of destroyed furniture and belongings.
Fourteen homes here were flooded on December 12th after a wave of water over-ran the banks of a nearby canal.
Dog drowned
Anthony and Vera O’Donnell, whose pet Chihuahua was drowned when the water from the canal swept through their sitting room, say they have since been told their insurance does not cover flood damage.
Among the family’s belongings, which had to be dumped after the water contaminated everything, were dozens of Irish dancing trophies won by their 18-year-old daughter, Courtney.
“We threw out our freezer and dryer, all the children’s toys, and Christmas presents, curtains,” Ms O’Donnell said.
“Everything had to be thrown out,” she said. “It was all contaminated.”
Standing in front of a skip outside his damaged home, Mr O’Donnell said: “All this could have been avoided if they had opened the canal gates when they should have done.”
Meanwhile, Limerick City and County Council said it was installing flood defences in the city as a precautionary measure ahead of high tides and heavy rainfall over the Christmas period.
The local authority said the ESB confirmed last Tuesday that it would maintain the spill rate at Parteen Weir to 335 cubic metres per second.