FLOODING CRISIS:HOTELIERS IN flood-affected areas are counting the cost of both storm damage and lost bookings, making an an already difficult trading environment even worse.
Weeks of “very good bookings” have been lost at the Lake Hotel, Killarney, parts of which remain under water following flooding on Thursday.“It’s an awful financial kick,” said owner Niall Huggard.
Business in the Lord Bagenal Inn, Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow, is “verging on non-existent”, said owner James Kehoe. The hotel has remained open but roads into the village have been closed.
Some hotels in Cork may not reopen as many of them have been badly affected either by flooding or a lack of water, said Charlie Shiel, Cork branch chairman of the Irish Hotels’ Federation and manager of the Clarion Hotel.
“This year has been difficult enough and this is going to be a defining moment for some businesses,” he said.
Some hotels had not paid their insurance this year because they could not afford it. Other insured hotels may run into cashflow problems because insurance money will not come quickly enough.
The Clarion Hotel has remained open and many hotels have been pulling together to get water and even provide showers for people displaced from their homes.
The five-star Kingsley Hotel in Cork is one of the worst affected in the region and remains closed for the foreseeable future due to a flood in the early hours of Friday morning. Some 240 guests were evacuated from the hotel, into which some €30 million had been invested over recent years.
Hotel director Séamus Heaney described it as a “mini-tsunami” which destroyed furniture, the swimming pool, the kitchen and cars.
Sullivans Royal Hotel in Gort said the town normally had a very busy morning and lunch trade but was quiet yesterday due to a diversion of traffic.
While not affected by flooding, costs have remained the same because it has stayed open. “We’re snookered” manager Josephine Harrison said, adding that she expects it to take a “good while” before business is back to normal.
In badly flooded Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, Cryans Hotel has been closed since Friday. Owner Frances Cryan said functions at the hotel, which faces the Shannon, would now have to be cancelled for the coming weekend. “We have managed to keep the water out so things could be a lot worse. Nobody died,” said Ms Cryan.
Agriculture is another sector badly affected by the floods, and farmers in the west, midlands and southwest were yesterday frantically moving stock and trying to protect fodder stocks.
Michael Kelly of Ardrahan, Co Galway, said there was serious damage to farmland and fodder from flooding from the Dunkellin river; 100 rural houses were under threat and 14 families had to move out, he said.
“We have no reports of stock being lost yet, but there is widespread damage to silage stocks and some farmers in the area face ruin,” he said. “I know one man who lost 100 bales and while there will be help from neighbours, it is a long way to February.”
The Department of Agriculture said it will draw up a fodder aid scheme. Teagasc had already identified a 20 per cent fodder deficit in some parts of the west even before the flooding began.