Fundraiser for mother and her three children evacuated from flood hit home

A fundraising campaign has been launched for a  mother and her three children who were forced to evacuate their home due to ongoing flooding from Lough Funshinagh.

Although only created yesterday evening, almost €3,000 of a €10,000 target has been raised for Ellie Mc Laughlin and her three children. The Go Fund Me page was set up by Ellie’s brother Barry.

“Last Friday my sister Ellie and her beautiful children had to be evacuated from their home due to a devastating flood,” he wrote. “They have no idea when or if ever they will be able to return to their home. Ellie has spent all of her working life helping others. She worked and saved for years to buy and renovate her precious cottage, only to watch her home become uninhabitable due to this flood. This has absolutely broken her heart and that of her children.

“We have retrieved some of her belongings but had to leave a lot behind as it was unsafe to continue to enter the house .Any help would be greatly appreciated to help Ellie and her children get back on their feet.” Ellie and her three children who are aged eight, eleven and thirteen are now living in a hotel in emergency accommodation.

Speaking to the Herald yesterday (Tuesday), Ellie said it has been a very “stressful and traumatic” time for her and her family.

“Yesterday (Monday) I was so upset, even in the car going shopping the tears were streaming down my face,” she said. “It doesn’t even feel real. I haven’t been really sleeping either.” Understandably, she explained that the events of the last week are “a bit of a blur”.

“It was the early hours of Thursday morning when we evacuated the children out of the house. The water was up at the front door. I had been setting my alarm for every two hours to check the pumps during the night. I was really conscious of how unsafe it could potentially become during the night.

“At 2 a.m., I knew we were in trouble. I rang my parents in the early hours to come out and help me get the kids out of the house. We had to lift the littlest fella over the water, he was really scared. It was pretty deep but you could get through it with wellies at that point. But it was still deep enough, that if a child fell, they could drown.” She said that she stayed on, wanting to make sure the house was safe.

“Work were fantastic. They arranged that I could take the whole week off so that I could concentrate on looking after the house. But by the next morning, I had to leave myself because it was so unsafe. No one could stay there at that point,” she said. “There is no home there now. It’s there but it is sitting in a lake.” Ellie said that the speed at which the water rose was frightening.

“In the space of 24 hours it went from nought to 100,” she said. “I didn’t expect things to happen as quickly as they did. I didn’t leave me a lot of time to get all of my valuables and the kids’ important things out of the house.

“My brothers and their friends came out. They couldn’t even park at the house. They had to park a van up the road and carry my furniture, my couch and all the kids’ toys over the flood. It was very hard to see. When they took my little one’s desk out of her room, I was so upset. It was awful.” She explained that she bought the house ten years ago, and the support from the local community “has kept me going”.

“The council has been great but long term everything is up in the air. It is going to be a long time before we can go home. The road is going to closed until August or September. And then there is going to be renovations, I just don’t know where we are going to go from here. I actually feel like a different person now than a few weeks ago, this has had such an effect on me.” She said that she hoped that government and politicians were working hard to find a solution.

“This was so preventable, so many people were shouting about this for years, calling for help and for the overflow pipe to recommence,” she said. “My neighbours who are in their 70s and 80s can’t go home either. It is shocking to see the devastation and heartbreak that this has caused. The ripple effect is huge.” The Minister of the OPW, Kieran O'Donnell, viewed the home during a visit to the lake on Friday, and Ellie asked that the leaders of the Government to take action now.

“At this points, words are not enough. We need to see this really serious, really dangerous issue get resolved. It is getting worse by the day. More families are going to be affected, more homes are going to be ruined. I am looking at my house being swallowed up by a lake. That house is my home, my life, my dream. My children’s safe space. And that’s all gone. We need action now, I don’t want anyone to ever go through this again, because it is so preventable.” She said that the worry and anxiety of whether she will wake up to hear the house is destroyed is enormous.

“Will we ever be able to go home? The unknown is really having a massive effect.” She said that the staff of the council are monitoring her home and pumping water, “doing their best to ensure the house isn’t fully destroyed”.

“But it is a battle, it is very difficult when you see what they are up against,” Ellie said. “The water is under the floorboards in the kids’ bedroom and my bedroom. The council could feel it under their feet when they walked in. They have a new pump brought in today and they are really hopeful that this is going to really help. But the house is sitting in water.” Ellie said she is hopeful that a resolution can be arrived at.

“I think we are all due a turn of good luck after all this. It has been incredibly difficult for a lot of people, not just my family.”

Click here for the link to the fundraiser.