Water, Water Everywhere.......

Where do I start?  So much has happened in the last week and I have had so little time to write about it....

Ireland for the past 7 days or so  has been hit with horrific flooding which has devastated both urban and rural areas.  Coincidentally both our hometown and the town where we now live have been particularly badly hit along with County Cork....

Different parts of our town have been cut off, people have been evacuated from their houses where the Civil Defence had to go in and rescue them by boat... Schools have been closed and only reopened today... Everytime we need to go to town we take a long detour as our access road to town has been cut off since last Friday....

Despite  having had unprecedented rainfall for the past few months we did not guess that flood damage would reach such epic proportions..... During the first week in September we had 44mm of rainfall which was considered quite a lot.. (I do remember remarking on it as I had the new Infants in that week and they were unable to get out to play at any stage during that first week:(..... Not good for little ones just starting school... or for me... the teacher!) This, however pales in comparison to the 100mm of rainfall over the past short while.....  Needless to say there had to be consequences....

But I digress...Anyone seen my car? Or have a spare engine??!!

You can guess where this is going!!  Despite very heavy rainfall all night Wednesday and Thursday morning causing flooding on main roads and side roads I did get to my school 20 miles away without mishap....  Rainfall continued unabated all day and I headed off after school in the opposite direction to home to attend a meeting... As my options continued to be cut off due to flooding I thought it sensible to retrace my steps and head for home.... By this stage it was getting dark and rainfall was still heavy...  Passed by my school again, and continued on until I came to the flood ... the only thing blocking me from getting off the mountain where I work and home... I dialled Declan to find out 'Does one drive fast or slow through a flood?' 

The answer???

Well, before he could answer I hung up and decided to just take it handy....  Bad mistake.....

The answer????? 'One does not drive through a flood''.  Especially in a diesel car.....all the knowledge I have now did not help me once I stalled in the middle of it... Of course the flood had to have deepened from morning.... In my defence it was dark and there was nothing to warn motorists that it was now dangerous.... Thank Heavens for mobile phones... Otherwise I would have felt  rather panicky...out the country, narrow road, pretty isolated, ... stuck!.. first call to Declan who of course could do nothing to help except ....be the other end of the phone...

Lights the other side of the flood  were either assistance or impatient motorists who now had me blocking their way home.. I like to think I saved them from the same fate as me..!!!

To cut a long story short..... I was lucky that the guy shouting in at me 'Are you dead?'!!!! turned out to be someone I knew... a parent.... He waded in, gave me the nth degree and then single handedly pushed the car through to the other side...

Got a distress call in the middle from Elena who had picked up on our phone conversation and was quite panicked..... so, in the middle of the drama I had to try to reassure her that I was ok, was not going to be carried away in the flood and that a man was helping me... 'Yeah' she tearfully replied 'but that man is only Daddy...'!!!

Well, while 'only Daddy' set off to collect me.... Joe and Paul, another guy I knew that came along (from him we had rented a marquee and a yurt for our official school opening a year and a half ago!!)  made sure the car was pushed right in off the road and so, I sat there in the dark, once I had reached the far side, (feeling rather foolish, of course!).. thanked the two guys and reassured them that I would be picked up and sent them on their way home....also feeling guilty at how wet they were because of me!!!... I knew things were not good with the car  when first the lights died and not long after the radio went or was it the other way round.... Once again I was so thankful for my mobile phone .. and that the battery did not die or my credit did not run out!!!

Yes, Declan did come to rescue me... and I did get home safely...In conclusion after conditons worsened overnight the road was closed and I did not make it to school the following day... By Monday I got there by taxi ... one which goes to our school every day with a special needs little boy so I did have an option even though we had to take a diversion across the mountain  as the road is still closed  almost a week later...

Back home I had taken to listening to the local radio station and one by one all the town schools were closed as the flood waters continued to rise all night and the river burst its banks  causing mayhem.. Before this happened Declan had towed my car back in the morning and  left it to the local Ford dealer.... When he attempted to go back that evening to see about it the river had by then burst its banks and the garage was under water and he could not get in... Today is the first day they have had limited access in to the industrial estate where the garage is ... so the story is...'the engine is goosed', needs to be replaced and I have learned to my cost not to drive into floods.....Praying the insurance will cover it.... if so it will be the first time I have ever claimed in my 22 years of driving..!!!

View across the 'Post Office Field' as it is known....

 .....A lot of people are annoyed at the amount of development in the town in the past few years... Take this field for example.. a huge campaign was waged a few years back to 'Save the Post Office Field' as there were plans for further development here.... Can you imagine the disaster it would have been  as this is one of the flood plains of the town... Many others of course have been built on and and as a result now the water has nowhere to go and so many families have been put up in temporary accomodation, with no hope of returning to their homes before Christmas..... I feel so sorry for them.......

View of the basketball court in front of Darrelle's school....

When Elena did not make it to school on Friday we took out the camera on our way home....The waters had already risen and reached the picnic table here...Driving by today we noticed that there was a lot less of the picnic table to be seen....Alex has just passed by, looked over my shoulder and asked 'Is that an upside down goalpost?!!!!

After almost a week of this most people have 'cabin fever' and are trying to get out.... Unfortunately the forecast for the weekend is very bad and they have announced that the areas already flooded are deemed still 'high risk' for further flooding!!!

This used to be a walkway!