A victim of over-development on the Tulla Road

ONE of last week’s flooding victims believes he was the victim of allowing over-development on the flood plain of the Fergus. Eamon Traynor, who lives on the Tulla Road, was an objector to the development of Castlerock and Cappahard

estates that neighbour his own property.
Speaking to The Clare Champion on Friday morning, Mr Traynor said his home had been badly hit. “If you came up here yesterday, it was about six inches. We’ve wooden floors throughout the whole place and it was nearly a foot in some places. I got my brothers-in-law in and we tried to raise everything. It started to come in on Thursday morning at about nine o’clock. It was rising and rising all the time. We had sandbags at the door but they won’t keep out a lot. We’d just put in a new bathroom two weeks ago; everything was new but it was covered in water and it’ll all have to come out again.”
Both Eamon and his wife have suffered bad health, so the flooding caused particular distress, he admitted.
“All we could do was get blocks and get things off the ground. I was going from 7 o’clock Thursday morning till half seven that night. I was going all day but I shouldn’t be doing that; I’ve had a quadruple bypass. I just left in the clothes I was in, I didn’t even bring pyjamas, I had no time to think, everything is thrown everywhere.”
The Cappahard estate is right behind his home and he remembers the area flooding heavily prior to the houses being built. “There were 40 acres of land and I saw six feet of water in there,” he added.
When planning was sought to develop the land, he provided pictures of the area under water to the authorities. “This used to be the last house on the road, there was nothing between me and the railway bridge. Before they started building, I had aerial photographs done and I sent them in with a letter to An Bord Pleanála.”
He feels planning shouldn’t have been granted for what was subsequently built. “If it had to be done, it should have been done in a different way. The system for sewerage and water didn’t cope with building 200 odd houses plus the nursing home there. We also objected to Castlerock.”
He said that the floor levels in Cappahard are at a higher level than at his own house, something he believes was done as there was an awareness of the potential for flooding.
Eamon said one of his neighbours had helped keep spirits and energy levels up as the waters rose around the house. “She arrived up with tea and sandwiches to us out of the blue. Later in the day, she came up with a lovely flask of hot soup. That’s what kept us going.”
He doesn’t believe he’ll be in his house for some time. “We’re going to be out for a few months, we’re going to have to get someplace else to live.”