The emergency at Lough Funshinagh 'has to be seen to be believed'

The emergency at Lough Funshinagh now simply 'has to be seen to be believed', a man whose home is now partially flooded has told the Herald.

During Storm Kathleen, the garage of Tommy Carney’s split level home flooded.

“There is nothing you can say,” Mr Carney, who is the chairperson of the Lough Funshinagh Flood Crisis Committee, told the Herald . The lower level of Mr Carney’s Ballagh home previously flooded in the past.

“There is three foot of water there now,” he said. "We are used to this flooding,” Mr Carney said ruefully.

The threat of flooding and being at the mercy of the Irish weather, “is impossible to live with,” said Mr Carney.

“It is getting worse all the time.” It is also taking a toll on the people around the lake, he added.

“Yesterday we couldn’t get the cars in or out. The road was flooded coming into the house, the lawn was flooded. It’s a struggle, whenever you step out the door, whether it is to socialise or farm, it’s a struggle.” He said that there was water in his sheds, and that his farming has had to be reduced.

“I am lambing a few ewes. There are trailers, that I borrowed off of neighbours, around the field to substitute for housing.” Installing an overflow pipe was the “only show in town” in terms of providing a solution, he said.

“It is the only solution. At the moment the lake is 10 or 12 inches higher than it was in 2021. It has never ever been at that height before.

“The reality is that even if the rain stops now those pumps are going to be going at my house for the next three or four months. The best we can hope for is that it will stop rising and then start receding somewhat, but that is a very slow process.” He said that the Government’s parties leaders should accept the invitation to come to the lake.

“Seeing is believing. You can’t show the pictures or describe in words how difficult it is,” he said.

Padraig Beattie lives at Ballagh Cross on the now closed L-2005 road, just metres away from the flooded lake. His home is protected by flood barriers and the road itself.

“With the current forecast, it could go up another two inches,” he said. “It is already at least halfway up on the sandbags on the road.” The front garden of the home, where he lives with his mother Mary, is saturated with water. He had to dig a drain across the garden to bring more water to the pump.

“We have a second pump set up in case the first one stops. You’re talking minutes before the water would flood the house. There is even a third pump set up in reserve.” He added that land was flooded at the back of the property, affecting farming.

“I have a calf suckling at the moment. I woke up this morning and checked the camera and a cow had calved. If the flood got in overnight and flooded the house, the shed would flood also. I could lose animals over it too.

“This has to be classified as an emergency, because if this is not an emergency, what is?” He called for action to be taken immediately before the annual autumn and winter flooding.

“The pipe is the solution and a very simple solution,” Mr Beattie said.

“Since Easter, the Civil Defence has been calling out in the middle of the night, 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., to keep an eye on the road and pumps. That shows how serious it is, you don’t have the Civil Defence calling out every night unless it is serious. They helped me putting up the sandbags as well,” said Mr Beattie.

He said that flooding defence works in Athlone have helped protect the town, “so why can’t the works go out here?”.

He also called for the Government's leaders to visit the lough.

“Anyone who has seen it is speechless, they just stare at it in disbelief. Pictures can’t convey it, they couldn’t deny it’s an emergency if they saw it. We are two hours from Dublin, there’s a motorway straight down, so they have no excuse not to visit us,” Mr Beattie said. “It has been going on for seven years.”