Alice O'Brien says this week's floods in Clonmel are the worst she's seen in her 65 years.
As she surveyed the damage to her home in Oldbridge with her husband, Alec and her son, Jimmy, she recalled the 1947 flood when the Suir broke its banks. "I was eight years old at the time and this is the worst yet - it's worse than 1947 and it's worse than 2000.
"We had over five feet of water outside our back wall - it came up in a shot and we had about a foot of water in our utility room."
"Only for the fact that my sons, Jimmy and Johnny put in a pump in the utility room it would have flooded the house - it started coming up through the floor and it started pouring out through the vents under the house," she added.
Mrs O'Brien was also worried whether her cats had survived the flooding. "I have nine cats, I've seen three of them, but I'm not sure what's happened the rest of them," she said.
Out in the back yard of her home in McDonagh Crescent, the Suir had burst its banks and turned a field and laneway into a fast-flowing muddy swirl.
Alice's son, Jimmy, (44) who has a mechanical engineering workshop at the back of his parents' home, reckons that he has sustained losses of around €20,000. After previous floods, he's been unable to get insurance.
"All this talk of a flood relief scheme for Clonmel is a joke - we were hit four years ago and nothing's been done since - we broke down a wall over there ourselves the last time and if it wasn't for that we'd be even worse off this time."
Jimmy and his parents stayed up all night and yesterday morning. He had to tell his brother Johnny, who is on holidays in Lanzarote with his family, that his house in nearby Spring Gardens was under four feet of water.
"They had spent over €20,000 doing it up after the last flood and had just finished it six months ago - it looked like a palace and now for this to happen again - it's devastating," said Jimmy.
Outside, locals were clambering into the buckets of JCBs hired by the Clonmel Borough Council to be ferried back and forth over the flood waters which also hit Irishtown, the quays, Dr Croke Place and other low-lying parts of the town.
Business people along the upper stretches of Joyce's Lane were mopping up, while others closer to the quays were still waiting for water levels to drop before starting to clean up the damage which is estimated at between €2 and €4 million.
Some 35 troops from the 12th Infantry Battalion Support Company based at Kickham Barracks had come to assist gardaí late on Thursday night in the evacuation of families and the distribution of some 3,000 sandbags.
Among those evacuated by the Army was Ms Marie Houlihan from Pinewood in Kilmacomma some two miles outside of town - who was expecting her baby today. They brought her to safety in town where she was met by her family.
Another to leave her home was Liz O'Brien who managed to drive in from the Coleville Road with her sons, Shane (10) and Jonathan (22), while her husband John remained in the house as flood waters started to rise.
"We just fitted out a new kitchen yesterday - we left the house at about 3 a.m. in our car - I have nowhere to go and I don't know what to do.
"Our lives are devastated. We can't get insurance and no one will buy our home," said Mrs O'Brien.
