A family motor repair business in Co Mayo is under threat from still rising floodwaters which has made their garage a 'no go area' for the past month and destroyed a number of saloon cars parked outside.
The O'Connor family, which lives on the N60 road to Castlebar, outside the village of Balla, says that unlike other deluge stricken areas there is no sign of the floodwaters, which have engulfed their premises, subsiding.
Father and son mechanics Michael O’Connor, Senior, and Michael O’Connor, Junior, can only access their workshop by donning waders.
Although they managed to save a number of vehicles from the advancing floodwater they were unable to rescue two BMWs (04 and 00 registrations), a Fiat Punto (03) and an Opel Corsa (00).
The mostly submerged vehicles now sit forlornly in more than three feet of water.
The biggest worry now for the O’Connors is that any further rainfall will mean their bungalow home, which is situated on higher ground, adjacent to the garage, will be in danger.
Although there has regularly been a winter turlough — seasonal lake — in the vicinity the water has always stayed well distant from the N60 and adjacent residential properties.
Michael O’Connor, Senior said today: “In my 35 years in the area, the water has never been as high as this.
“We’ve never been flooded before even at times of high rainfall. The garage is now inaccessible and looks like remaining so for the foreseeable future.”
The O’Connors now fear that winter flooding will be a regular occurrence due to climate change and reckon the only solution for them is to demolish the garage, raise the site with infill material and rebuild.
Angela O’Connor, wife of Michael, Senior, speaks of “tremendous stress” over the past month not knowing whether the family home as well as the garage is going to be inundated.
The Mannion family, neighbours of the O’Connors, have also watched in recent weeks as the local turlough surged well beyond its normal winter boundaries.
Dozens of bales of silage belonging to the Mannions are under water. When it comes to the daily feed for their cattle herd, father and son Jimmy and Tommy Mannion have to use a mechanical digger to bring the waterlogged bales to dry land.
The end result from the point of view of the cattle is sour tasting silage which the cattle haven’t taken any great liking too.
Jimmy Mannion’s wife, Bridie, lamented the loss and damage of fodder as well as the fact that large areas of their farm are now under water.
“All our back are fields under water, our bales are floating”, she said . “I’m very fearful that rains like and disastrous flooding like this will now become an annual event”.
Another local man Michael Ansbro, one of the oldest residents of the locality, said he never witnessed in his lifetime such extensive flooding, caused by the unprecedented expansion of an underground lake or turlough.
“Even if it stops raining right now and remains bone dry it would take six weeks for the flood to subside”, he said.