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Council "caught out" by bad weather says Sharkey
LOUTH County Councillor Tomas Sharkey has hit out at the lack of information available to the public during Monday's flooding throughout Dundalk and North Louth.
The Sinn Fein representative spent much of the evening travelling around the county helping distressed householders while updating people on developments via Facebook, text messages and Twitter.
However, not everyone had access to such information and Cllr Sharkey said it is time something urgent was done by the council to provide people with information when needed.
"The town and county was a melee," he said.
"Dundalk Town Council put a call out to Louth County Council for all their spare sandbags but other areas of the county were affected as well. Kilkerley was badly hit and Omeath and Ravensdale were particularly bad where the Ballymac River broke its banks.
"The Carlingford-Omeath Road was practically impassible and that was very dangerous.
"The council were badly caught out by Monday's weather. There were a lot of bad flood spots but nothing to warn motorists about them, particularly around Carlingford and Omeath.
"The public in Dundalk didn't know what was going on. The council website had absolutely no updates, in the same way it had no updates earlier this year during the big freeze. I have approached the council management about that but only for the likes of Facebook, texts and Twitter, the public were lost on Monday."
Cllr Sharkey said he would be raising the flooding issue as a matter of immediate concern at the next county council meeting in a fortnight's time.
"It's very obvious what is happening in a few areas. Drains are blocked and that needs to be addressed but in other areas we need to investigate why thosee areas are flooded.
"The issues of keeping drains open shouldn't arrive but some landowners are guilty of blocking drains on their land.
"The issue of keeping drains clean is just a matter of a wage but we're stuck with a bigger clean up figure now than the wage would have cost.
"When outdoor staff retire at the oment they are not being replaced and the problems faced on Monday is just one of the results of the government's cutbacks," said Cllr Sharkey.
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Weather for Dundalk
Thursday 17 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 7 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 7 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
