Council Services responded to serious flooding incidents in East Donegal over the weekend.
While there had been persistent rain throughout the day on Saturday 22nd July, Met Eireann weather warning alerting service advised of a Level Yellow rainfall warning for 13 counties including Donegal at 18.36 hours on Saturday 22nd with an expected onset time of 18.28 hours and running until 11.00 hours on Sunday 23rd. There had been no prior warning of an escalated risk for anywhere in Donegal. It should be noted that yellow rainfall warnings are cautionary in nature and are frequent in Donegal and other counties.
Initial reports of flooding in the Raphoe, Castlefinn, Convoy and Killygordon areas were made to 999/112 at 19.40 hours. On foot of this fire appliances from Stranorlar & Letterkenny were deployed to Castlefinn. Subsequently and as a result of the extent of the incident emerged, further appliances were deployed from Buncrana, Milford, Strabane & Castlederg and a second Letterkenny appliance were deployed to Castlefinn. Separately Donegal Town Fire brigade was deployed to Convoy and Glenties Fire Brigade was deployed to Castlefinn to deal with emerging incidents there.
Given the number of areas impacted by flooding events within the Deele and Finn Valleys the Roads Service mobilised staff from the Inishowen and Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District to assist staff from the Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District. Roads staff distributed sandbags to householders and businesses, implemented measures to divert floodwaters where possible, closed roads that were damaged by flood waters pending assessment and co-ordinated with colleagues in the Fire Service and Civil Defence. Roads Service staff commenced the clean up and assessment operation on Sunday morning. Bridges and culverts were inspected, debris was removed from roads and areas that will require more extensive repairs were secured.
Civil Defence units were deployed from 20.04 hours to deploy additional sandbags, distribute same as necessary and support any response activities necessary, initially in Raphoe and subsequently in Castlefinn.
The primary objective in the initial response was to ensure safety of persons at risk and to defend properties from flooding where it was still possible to do so. This was successful in a number of locations in Raphoe and Castlefinn.
Clean up efforts and assessment of extent of repairs were commenced on 23rd and will continue until completed.
A minimum of 10 commercial premises and 8 domestic properties were flooded to an extent based on Fire service reports but these numbers are subject to update in the coming days as all reports are collated.
The Council has been in contact with The National Directorate for Fire & Emergency Management advising of the flooding incidents in the Raphoe, Castlefinn, Convoy, Liscooley & Killygordon areas last evening.
This is in relation to potential assistance available from the Department of Social Protection(DSP) and the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment to assist, respectively, householders and businesses affected by this and which may be eligible for assistance under these schemes.
The DSP supports for eligible householders affected are available through contacting the National Community Welfare Contact Centre at 0818 607080, reference Donegal Flooding 22nd/23rd July and the Humanitarian Assistance Scheme.
It is expected that further details in relation to the Business Support Scheme will be available on Monday 24th July.
The records gathered of the rainfall event show that an extremely high figure of 84mm of rain fell on Saturday 22nd July. The Council will be pressing for the two OPW flood relief schemes in Raphoe and Castlefinn to be advanced as quick as possible.
