Who Nobbled The Cobbles

Serious and incessant heavy rainfall on the 19th of November 2009 and for some days previous necessitated the release of water from the Inniscarra Dam. The pressure on the dam wall was enormous and it is thought to have exceeded safe tolerance levels which prompted this release. Unfortunately the release of water from the dam coincided with a very high tide and the resulting outcome was a disaster for the City and the County along the Lee Valley. It has been described as the worse flood in living memory, while the ESB the power company with charge of the dam have claimed that this is a rare and one in eight hundred year occurrence.

It is estimated that the bill for damages in Cork City alone will exceed 300 million euros and Insurance companies are braced for a series of claims. They are also blaming the ESB for the release of water which they the insurance companies claim was unnecessary and done without warning to those down-river from the Inniscarra dam, not allowing people time to put flood preventative measures in place. They are seeking an opt out from paying and are clearly trying to level blame for this solely on the door of the Dam operator.

A spokesperson for The ESB denies responsibility and said that ample warning prior to the release of water was circulated to the authorities and press well before the event took place, he also said that unless the pressure on the dam was relieved there was a bigger disaster waiting to happen.

Minister for The Environment John Gormley visited Cork City and other towns in the county that were also hit severely from the rainfall which caused rivers to burst their banks throughout the county. He has promised that the Government who one would have thought were seriously strapped for cash would be very supportive and that funds would be forthcoming from the exchequer to cover the costs of repair and replacement. He stopped short of promising Government aid for householders and businesses without insurance cover.

In Cork City the collapse of the quay wall at Grenville Place which resulted in the evacuation of nearby buildings is now subject to an investigation. It has been suggested that cobblestones from the old city streets were used to help shore up and strengthen this stretch of the city's quays. It now appears that in recent weeks these cobblestones were removed, their removal could ultimately be responsible for the collapse of the walls, which could have had disastrous consequences for road-users, nearby residents and patients at the Mercy Hospital which straddle the river's edge at this point.