Tidal floods cause havoc in Cork as city centre shops flooded

The morning after the night before and the trail of debris interspersed with sodden sandbags said all that needed to be said about how Cork city centre had fared when high tides and strong winds sent water flooding through some of the city's main shopping area on Tuesday night.

All along Oliver Plunkett Street from Parnell Place to the Grand Parade and adjacent sides streets such as Pembroke Street, Winthrop Street, Cook Street, Marlborough Street and Princes Street, shopkeepers were engaged in a major clean-up yesterday morning.

Mounds of broken lino and heaps of sodden carpets were being turfed out onto the street, while every so often another shopkeeper emerged to dump furniture into the skips provided at key junctions by Cork City Council.

And then there were the mounds of sandbags, some hastily packed into coal sacks, now moved to the side of doorways as business people tried to brush out the pools of flood water before beginning the grim task of washing out the muddy residue of the floods.

"The muck and the smell is the worst," said Leo O'Callaghan of O'Callaghan Sound and Vision on Oliver Plunkett Street. "We were lucky – we had prepared for a metre flood so we had all our stock moved up high, but we still had to wash out the shop after the floods receded."

Nearby in Pamela Scott, manager Reg Collins was surveying the damage caused by a foot of water that sent mannequins' shoes floating around before flooding their safe and soaking Tuesday's takings

"We're just trying to dry some of the notes," said Reg who, along with her colleagues, Pauline O'Callaghan and Ania Gordziejczyk, in between mopping up operations, still managed

to come to the rescue of the mother of a bride-to-be looking for an outfit.

Former All-Ireland winning Cork hurler and coach, Gerald McCarthy was also counting the cost to his sports trophy business on nearby Lower Princes Street.

“You know the flood comes and there’s this immediate impact but then after all the mopping up and cleaning up is done, it’s all forgotten about again very quickly. But next year or the year after, it will happen again and nothing seems to be done and that’s very frustrating,” he said.

“For the commercial centre of the city to be decimated like this every year or every couple of years, it’s just not on – businesses here are finding it difficult enough without being knocked back like this – we need proper flood protection works to put in place.”

While many affected premises were preparing to reopen, others such as Clancy's Bar were still assessing the damage from flood waters which flowed in from the Marlborough Street side and out onto Princes Street – with serious consequences for those working there.

General manager, Barry O’Callaghan said up to 35 staff were facing layoffs while the clean-up continued. “That’s where we find ourselves this morning: telling people we have no work for them and we’re still expected to pay rates to the council,” he said wearily.

Not that the damage was confined to Cork city. In Kinsale, part of the road was swept away after the storm waters broke through a seawall by the Bulman Pub, while the road to Cobh was also damaged by heavy flooding at Belvelly which cut off Great Island for a time.

Waves of 30ft crashed over houses in Glandore in west Cork, while both houses and businesses in Youghal, Carrigaline, Clonakilty, Skibbereen and Bantry were also flooded by a combination of high tides, strong southeasterly winds and heavy rains.