It was 6am on Friday, January 3rd when the Atlantic swept into the home of Patrick O’Sullivan and his fiancee Noreen Kennedy for the first time.
The Cromane fisherman, known also as Patie, (34) had been awake most of the night. Their home was built six years ago and is among others, lining the road at the scenic harbour village where residential development has been in high demand over the past decade.
In November he had again written to Kerry County Council asking them to finish repairing an embankment in Cromane lower, at the edge of Dingle Bay, in place since the days of the old land commission.
“The section they didn’t finish was near my house. I could see it was eroding,” O’Sullivan said.
At 4am, he got up. His children Joshua (8) and Emily (3) were sleeping upstairs. Kennedy is expecting their third child.
“I saw the sea coming across to the fish factory. I woke Noreen and we saw it coming in the back. We literally just ran up the stairs and we grabbed one of the kids each. By the time we got out to the van the full force of water came at us.”
The water had surrounded the house and the van.
The family managed to get away to O’Sullivan’s mother’s house which is on higher ground. The water around the house was knee deep. Inside the new house it got to seven inches.
The speed and force was “frightening”, he said.
Electrics, architrave work, flooring is all ruined and now a salt residue is left everywhere.
Noreen Kennedy (33) had to seek medical attention. She was hugely upset by the whole thing, he said.
Last Sunday morning it happened again but the swells were not so bad this time.
The council had been granted almost €100,000 by the OPW to repair the protective barrier, which lines the backs of the houses but this wasn’t enough to do the full kilometre required and the OPW refused further funding. The works finished in 2012, with about 20 metres to go.
Nobody seems responsible for the embankment. "We are trying to find who is responsible," he said.
Future storm worries
O'Sullivan is worried now about further storms. Like others in Cromane lower, there were no issues about flooding when planning permission was granted.
Independent local councillor Michael Cahill who has campaigned for better coastal protection works for Cromane and for Rossbeigh sand spit since 1990 said the old land commission embankments had never been properly transferred.
Historically in Cromane and other areas, a variety of authorities – the OPW, the county council and such deal with the coast and flooding but no single body is responsible.
“It’s a big, big problem,” Cahill said.
Pádraig Corkery, spokesman for Kerry County Council said the council was “prevailed upon” by local representatives and other politicians to apply for funding to the OPW to repair the embankment and it received under €100,000. The council sought further funding but was refused.
“We at all times warned the local residents we would need additional funding to finish the works. We did what we could with what we got.”
Corkery says the council does not own the embankment: the local landowners are responsible.
Meanwhile, O’Sullivan is worried about the weeks ahead.
“In a couple more weeks the 31st January, the 1st February, we are due more high tides. This time we are covered by insurance (for the floods of last week). But next time we won’t be.
“I’m wondering what we can do. We have been left in limbo, really.”