Cllr Watters says North Louth community did not receive enough support during floods

Dundalk-Carlingford's Cllr Antóin Watters says that the community in north Louth did not get enough support during the recent flooding which has devastated houses, businesses and roads across the Cooley Peninsula.

Louth County Council's response to the flooding was discussed in detail at the Dundalk Municipal District November meeting, with standing orders suspended to allow for a full discussion with the Council executive on the local authority's response.

The response was discussed under six separate topics: initial response; members' communication; external support; staffing levels; media plan; and infrastructure.

During the discussion that followed, while councillors voiced numerous concerns over what transpired, all councillors spoke very highly of and commended first responders, frontline and outdoor staff, for their work and commitment. during the crisis.

Cllr Watters has today shared his views on the Council's response with the Dundalk Democrat. He said that "following the meeting last night, where all aspects of the council’s response to the recent flooding incident were discussed, the main thing is that the community in North Louth did not get enough support.

"While council workers have to be commended for working very hard on the ground, there simply was not enough of them and the workers were not supported enough to deal with the destruction and damage that was in front of them."

Cllr Watters explained, "on the Monday when the flooding started, I received a call from a friend of mine in Whitestown whose property was in danger of flooding he said. I contacted the council’s out of hours service, which I have to say was very helpful, and sandbags were provided.

"But then I started to receive more calls about flooding in different parts of Carlingford and I went to the council depot at the Bush where sandbags were provided and given out.

"However, by early on the following day, the sandbags had run out and I could see there were problems. I contacted the council early that morning and asked for an emergency meeting to ‘throw the kitchen sink at it’.

"At that meeting, I asked for consideration to be given to asking for assistance from the Defence Forces and at the meeting last night, it transpired that the Defence Forces’ offer of help was not accepted. This, to me, was a detrimental failing by the council."

He continued, "looking back overall, the scale, the manpower and the expertise of the Defence Forces would have been a huge help and addition to the community in Cooley. Council workers are not trained to get people out of flood waters or flooded houses – the Defence Forces are.

"On the issue of sandbags, while there were a lot of bags available on the Monday, the stock was depleted on Tuesday and it should have been replenished quicker. The Defence Forces could also have helped with that."

Looking at what needs to happen next, Cllr Watter said that "at the meeting last night, I asked for infrastructure to be triaged for repair. There are still a lot of people isolated, more than a week later, because of damage to roads and bridges.

"I was glad to hear that work is going to commence on repairs to the Turf Road, which Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú and I visited at the weekend, and it was the most badly damaged road in North Louth.

"However, we need a plan to see when and where these roads and bridges are going to fixed – temporarily and permanently.

"Today, I was still going to meet people in Castletowncooley and in Glenmore, who were showing me the damage that has been done to roads and bridges. The damage still has to be quantified."