RIPPED UP roads, ruined bridges and mountains scarred by landslides are a stark reminder of the severe flooding which hit west Mayo on Thursday.
As the clean-up gathered pace yesterday, Peter Hynes, director of services with Mayo County Council, said damage in the county caused by the deluge had been the worst since the Pollathomas landslide six years ago.
He said it would be today before access had been restored to all houses affected by road damage and landslides.
One of the council’s main priorities is to restore access to half a dozen families in the Buckagh area near Newport. The road to their houses had been destroyed by floods, and access since then has only been possible on foot.
“We are pleased there have been no injuries or fatalities,” Mr Hynes said. “But there is quite a lot of damage which will cost a lot of money to repair.”
Several hours of torrential rain on Thursday, accompanied by thunder and lightning, caused immense damage to infrastructure, especially in the Newport, Glenisland, Westport and Castlebar areas.
Glenisland, a scenic village on the main Belmullet road about four miles from Castlebar, took a pounding. One elderly local man had to be rescued from his house by firemen as floodwater inundated his cottage.
Thirteen families in the townland of Cummer, Glenisland, were cut off for a time when the road “turned into a river”. Local man John Ludden compared the rainfall with “a monsoon which washed the thin skin of tar on the road away as if it was paper”.
Mr Ludden’s aunt, Alice Healy, said: “The skies opened. I never saw anything like it. The thunder and lightning was unreal. Then a torrent of water came down the road, levelling all before it.”
Kevin McNally, who came from London with his wife Angela to live in a picture-postcard cottage overlooking the Nephin Beg mountains, was disconsolate as he sifted through sodden piles of personal documents which included his wedding album.
He declared: “This is a total mess which might have been avoided if the local drains had been cleaned more regularly.”
At Croaghmoyle Mountain outside Castlebar, the road to the TV booster station was blocked by a landslide which marooned two RTÉ technicians on the mountain when their jeeps were blocked by a wall of mud and rocks. The technicians managed to make their way to the base of the mountain on foot.
A tractor was on its way across washed-out roads yesterday evening to tow the technicians’ stranded vehicles clear.
In Glenisland, the Brown Oak river burst its banks, covering the cemetery in mud and debris and breaking a number of headstones.
Local historian Tony Deffely said nothing as bad had been experienced since 1826 when a flash flood up to 7m (23ft) deep drowned a number of livestock, but no one perished in that deluge.