Counting cost of Ennis flood damage

Thousands of euro worth of damage was caused this week as two streets in the centre of Clare’s county town flooded, forcing people from their homes and damaging business premises.
Last Thursday night, Ennis’ Francis Street flooded for the first time in living memory.
The River Fergus spilled down Abbey Street and the flood’s source took locals by surprise as water surged from the Club Bridge, a point at which they said the river had never before burst.
Freda Nihill has lived on Francis Street for 55 years. On Thursday, water gushed in her door destroying the floor of her 200-year-old house.
“I was just sitting here looking at Eastenders and when I pulled the curtain, I saw the water on the street and decided that I mightn’t go out again that night. Then a knock came to the door and the water was just coming in.
“The gardaí and the fire service put down sandbags. I thought the bags might keep it out but the water started coming in,” she recalled.
“I was doing the best I could do with the towels after that anyway but it kept coming in and I was told ‘sorry you have to go’. I was very slow to go, I can tell you,” Freda remembered.
“It did upset me, the day I was going away from the house not knowing what I would come back to and whether everything was sorted,” she added.
Bright and early on Saturday, Freda began brushing the remaining water out of the house. Her nephew and his wife removed the saturated linoleum flooring and by nightfall, Freda was back at home.
“When I came back it was very soggy. Everything was wet and there were a lot of papers on the floor and the carpets were wet. I had no furniture damage or anything like that,” she said with relief.
By Monday, the water had receded but the damage was clearly visible. The cement floors at ground level were dark and damp but Freda sat contentedly in her living room, warmed by the heat of the range.
“When everything is dried out, I’ll get my floor covered again and hope this doesn’t happen anymore. We don’t know if it will because this is the first time this street has flooded. None of us had any idea before.
“The house will be dried in about 10 days’ time I think. I won’t rush it now, I have plenty of time,” she concluded.
Freda even opened her door to Brian Cowen TD on Monday.
“I never thought I’d see the Taoiseach inside in this house,” she said. “He looks a lot younger when you meet him compared to on the television.”
Catherine McNicholas is one of Freda’s neighbours. Her ground floor is also ruined. She and her sister went for a meal on Thursday evening and returned to find her home under six to seven inches of water.
“From half seven until 10pm, things gradually got worse and worse. We got sandbags at about eight o’clock from the army and a neighbour’s brother.
“We had every duvet, every pillow and all the towels down trying to block the water,” she recalled.
Catherine’s daughter brought more towels and blankets and newspapers to the house on Francis Street but it was futile as water continued to come in the front door and up through the floor at the back of the house.
Catherine, like her neighbours, was evacuated.
“I felt terrible, absolutely devastated. I was beyond the beyond because I had only just done up the place. I finished it in February and when I saw the water coming in last week, I thought my heart would fall out on the street,” she revealed.
Like Freda, Catherine returned on Saturday to survey the damage. The water that had flowed over the bottom step of her stairs had soaked up to the fourth step.
“All the ground floor was flooded but the carpet had soaked the water. You could feel the slush when you walked,” she stated.
Catherine has taken up the covering on the ground floor and is now relying on electric heaters to dry out the floor and walls. She is not sure if the house will ever be the same again.
“I don’t know if my insurance will cover the damage and I can’t afford anything really. I can’t. It is an old house and it all has to be sorted out.
“I hope this will not happen again because if it does, what sort of situation does that leave us in with the insurance?” she asked.
The Candle Emporium on Francis Street was open for business on Monday. For its owners, Mary and Barry Foley, Thursday night was particularly “surreal”.
“It was about half past seven or eight o’clock. I was at home and I got a call from one of my neighbours to tell me to come in. It was horrific, terrible. The water was at least 10 inches to a foot in depth when we arrived here,” Mary told The Clare Champion.
“We were blessed. Only for the lads here who called us and put down blankets, we would have been in real trouble,” she added.
The evening was a memorable one for Barry.
“It was very distressing. People didn’t know what was going on. It was just surreal,” he recalled.
Although the water did breach the shop premises, the couple say that not much damage was done to stock, though they admit business is affected.
“It is having a terrible effect on our business because we rely on the wholesale side of it. The problem is we can’t do deliveries, which means we aren’t able to fulfil some orders at the moment,” Mary explained.
Despite the effects being felt by all the people living and working in the area, Freda is philosophical about the flood.
Her message is one of encouragement. “You have to cope with this sort of thing the best you can. You will get over it.”