Mr Chairman, Minister Hayes, Fellow speakers, and Guests. My name is Enda O Donovan. I am from a voluntary organisation called the Irish National Flood Forum, and I am here to talk about flooding, and how it effects communities. While a lot of today will be taken up with technical issues, it is important that we remember that flooding in this country is a killer, and we should remember in 2011 Garda Ciaran Jones was drowned while off duty trying to protect people at a bridge in Co. Wicklow, while the death of Cecilia De Jesus in her basement flat here in Dublin was heart-breaking in the extreme. But how many close calls have there been? If we start with a simple exercise, how many people here have suffered flooding either to their homes or businesses? (ask for a show of hands!). My talk today is aimed more at the people who have not been flooded; to give them an insight to what it is like, both for the individual homeowner, and for the community they live in. So what happens a community when a flood event happens? I will start by explaining how flooding effects the individual home and then broaden it out to cover the entire community. The worst part is the waiting for the possibility of a flooding event. Picture a family at home, with no Insurance for flooding, the family know it has been raining for days, the fields and rivers are swollen to capacity, Met Eireann gives warnings about heavy rain, and tidal surges; in many cases this is forecast 36/48hrs before the event. So what can this family do? First there is sleep deprivation, they don t sleep; they do the best they can, lifting furniture, fridges, everything so that IF there is flooding, they have done the best they can to protect their home. They put out sand bags, fix the flood barriers that they have bought,
they worked really hard. and then they wait should they go to work? What are the chances of their home flooding, there are not too many employers, who would be happy with people taking time off because there is a Chance their home May flood. These are some of the difficult issues that affect 10 s of thousands of families across the country. And what happens if your home does flood? During the flooding, you are working on adrenalin; however, after the event; I cannot describe how deflated you feel; - after you worked so hard to protect your home and the water just keeps on coming, gets over flood barriers, or in older homes, the flood water comes up through floor-boards, through party walls, sewers, etc. Then you have the clean-up. The clean-up takes days, the sandbags you filled and placed are 3times heaver wet than dry; the washing machine that two days earlier you had lifted by yourself onto the worktop, you now need someone to help just dropping it down. You find the things you forgot that were destroyed one couple had a bath on the ground floor and the husband put wedding photos etc. into the bath thinking they would be safe in there.. unfortunately the floodwater was a 1 higher than the bath! While protecting your home, lifting everything up. you forget about simple things, like stuff in your garage. Your garden is probably destroyed, but there are other things that you do not see, if you have a septic tank, it probably no longer works properly. For thousands of people, a flood event last less than 24 or even 12 hours.. But can you imagine what it is like for the thousands of others, especially further up along the Shannon River, where the flood-water can stay in your home for days? No electricity, no drinking water, no fridge, you probably can t even have a shower. So
where do you stay? Have you clothes? Getting children to and from school? Has your car been destroyed? I am sure most of you are picturing this, and you probably feel sympathy for those thousands of homes that constantly live with this threat. Now remember, that the vast majority of people this happens to, do not have any safety net of flood insurance cover! And the wider community is also effected, can people travel to get to the hospital, to the doctors? The schools are they shut down, are the roads open that you can collect your children. Other simple things like is it possible to get to local shops for food etc.? All business is interrupted, but this topic is being covered by a later speaker. However, when a businesses in the community floods, it has a huge knock on effect for the community;- take for example say the Playschool which minds your children gets flooded, it is fair to assume they don t have insurance cover, so how do they re-open? As a parent what are you to do with your children while the Playschool closed. It is these small things that damage the heart and soul of a community. After the flooding, each community reacts almost the same, there is anger, why did it happen? This is followed by frustration when it is explained that any flood relief scheme will take 6 or 8years why will it take so long? Then there is the low period where communities realise it is what it is it will take years and they have years of stress ahead of them. This is where it is important that Communities become actively involved in being part of the solution - there is a two-fold benefit here, physiology you are taking some ownership to finding the solution to the problem in your own community, and secondly, you have the correct line of communication with the relevant
stakeholders. Communities have found this accurate, truthful line of communication very important in focusing where they can go next. It would be wrong of me to ignore that during the boom some housing estate were given planning permission to be built in the wrong areas; there were also some infrastructure mistakes made, in some cases Local Authorities did not realise potential flooding problems; some were working to a 1:50year event, where now the OPW design to a 1:200year event. But always looking to the past will, in my personal opinion, do no one any good. We must, for sanity reasons alone, believe that the work by the Competent Authority, the OPW, is to the best possible standards. It is encouraging that it seems the Irish Insurance industry is finally agreeing to acknowledge the standards that the OPW are designing to I cannot describe the frustration that the delay of the Insurance Industry to acknowledge these standards has caused to 50000 homeowners across Ireland. But this is a topic for a later speaker. However, without flood insurance, are these communities to become a burden on the state? However, the fear of not having the resources to continue after a flood event, has a HUGE impact on communities, and while I acknowledge the painstaking work of the OPW in getting the Insurance Industry to finally take the first step to having a set of protocols (for want of a better word) to provide some level Flood Insurance cover to communities. We must also talk from a Community perspective of the Department of Social Protection s Humanitarian Assistance Scheme. This scheme was set up in November 2009 to assist people whose homes are damaged by flooding, to meet costs for essential needs, household items and in some instances structural repair.
Humanitarian assistance does not cover risks that are covered by insurance policies or cover business or commercial losses. The annual budget for this scheme is in the region of 10m. However, with the huge losses suffered by thousands across the country by the horrific weather of January and February, this 10million fund was increased in early February by 15million to 25million, primarily because of the devastation in Limerick you are probably thinking, this is great, the government known 10 s of 1000 s of homes are not insured and this is their safety net. This Emergency Fund has three primary goals. Firstly/ This is to provide emergency income support in the immediate aftermath of the flooding to cover needs such as food, clothing, toiletries and accommodation. Secondly/ It also includes for the replacement of white goods, basic furniture needs, and other essential household items after the flood water abates and the house have dried out. Finally/ The fund is to identify what longer term financial support or works are required and works to be carried out (including drylining, relaying floors, electrical re-wiring and painting) to non-local Authority properties. A central part of the scheme is that Department of Social Protection staff engage with agencies to ensure supports are provided to those affected as swiftly as possible! As of yesterday, the total paid out in 2014 was 604,433 was paid out, this is on average 887.57each to the 681 approved payments. For Limerick it is even worse, 711.02 for each of the 496homes that the Departments of Social Protection DECIDED it should make a payment to! I as you, in all sincerity is this acceptable?
These figures are from Minister Joan Burtons TD, Minister for Social Protection s own department dated yesterday. The OPW has done so much over the past 10 years to build thrust with flooded communities to tell it as it is, and to deliver, which they are doing. however people in communities talk, because of the devastation of earlier this year the fund was increased to 25m. yet this process which is to ensure supports are provided as swiftly as possible has 2months later only allocated 604,000 nationally. From a Community (human nature) perspective, this tarnishes the thrust that communities have in the Irish Governments ability to deal with Flooding Issues. It would be wrong of me to finish my few words on that note. Remember flooding solutions will only be found through Technical Expertise working with Local Community knowledge. Nobody is more focused on achieving a sustainable flood relief scheme for a community, than the actual community themselves. Engineers, no matter how interested, will never have the same level of personal investment in the flood relief scheme as the people whose homes and businesses will be protected by the flood relief scheme. That is just a fact! Communities are great, in time of traumatic events. Neighbours will help neighbours, people you don t even know will go to extra ordinary lengths to aid people because it is the right thing to do. I can give examples from many towns where local flood committees come together and pro-actively work with the stakeholders such as the OPW and the Local Authorities to help manage flood events setting up river monitoring such as in Blackpool in Cork who use (www.riverspy.net), Bandon who use the OPW/County Council website (www.bandonfloodwarning.ie), other communities use the
OPW s other website (www.waterlevel.ie) or Skibbereen Floods Committee has devised a way of using an EPA Hydronet River Flow measurement as early warning systems. Communities compile text alert warning system, and engaging with the lead agency, i.e. the Local Authority in managing flood events, such as recording flood levels, prioritising deployment of Civil Defence to elderly needy, even pro-actively engaging with the OPW in finding solutions such as the Minor Works Scheme applications by Ballinasloe; communities like Ballinasloe need to be championed and given all the help they can while working the Minor Works Scheme. The Irish National Flood Forum is a voluntary, non-funded organisation that aims to help communities to learn from each other; to introduce communities to the relevant persons, to develop strategies for each individual communities; to engage with and encourage organisations like the OPW to best practice. So if anyone wants to chat later, we are available. Please introduce yourselves. To finish, I just want to plead with the OPW, PLEASE, PLEASE try to speed up the process; For you engineers involved in the flood alleviation process, you do not understand how badly time slippage effects communities - even fast tracked schemes take over 6/7years for concrete works to be done on the ground that is 2000nights of being worried about rain and tides, 2000nights of not being able to take a family holiday, 2000nights of not sleeping right PLEASE, slip away from time slippages! Thank you for listening.