President appeals to insurers for swift response to victims

RELIEF EFFORT:PRESIDENT MARY McAleese has appealed to those with the power to make life easier for flood victims to respond swiftly.

The President said she was thinking of insurance companies as well as statutory agencies and voluntary groups whose response could have a huge impact on how those who are now “filled with despair” feel about their future.

The President was in Carrick on Shannon, Co Leitrim, on Saturday to meet flood victims as well as “heroic” council workers, civil defence personnel and other volunteers. Praising them for the response to the crisis, which she acknowledged was far from over, Mrs McAleese said she would be travelling to other flooded areas before Christmas but that she and her husband Martin were keen not to take away “even one hour” from the important rescue work being done.

The President’s own holiday home in Cootehall, a few miles from Carrick, has been cut off for two and a half weeks but she said “wonderful neighbours” had managed to access it by boat and had also re-opened an old bog road to allow other local people reach shops and schools.

“I know everybody here,” the President remarked as some of the worst hit families gathered at the offices of Leitrim County Council with rescue workers to meet her.

She pointed out that while the flood waters were receding and Carrick was returning to a semblance of normality many people had property which was still under water and many livelihoods had been affected.

“Our local supermarket, Glancys, where Martin and I shop, is closed. It is also tragic to see our lovely local cinema, which we’re all so proud of, closed.”

The President said she had been in daily contact with those on the ground in the worst-hit areas and she believed the response of neighbours, volunteers and state agencies had been extraordinary. The old meitheal tradition where neighbours gather to help neighbour had spontaneously been revived as people struggled for long hours to save homes and businesses, she pointed out.

Among those whom the President met was former Olympic oarswoman Frances Cryan who has reopened her hotel after a two-week battle to keep the Shannon at bay. “People were great. We had 18 or 19 pumps working there at one stage when the sandbags were piled up,” said Ms Cryan.