A REPORT HAS found that over 1,000 Dublin homes flooded during heavy rain which hit the capital and other areas in late October.
The floods, which killed two people and caused damage across Dublin and parts of Wicklow, flooded 1,008 properties according to a report prepared for Dublin City Council’s Environment & Engineering Strategic Policy Committee.
The report also stated there were 318 “significant” road floodings and “several thousand reports” of minor road flooding when up to 90mm of rain fell during six hours on the evening 24 October.
The report said this was more than four times the level associated with the country’s heaviest rainfall.
The report admits that there was a half hour delay in closing two flood gates on the River Dodder because staff could not find the keys. An incident first revealed by TheJournal.ie the morning after the floods.
It was reported that residents and the fire brigade were forced to break the locking mechanism and tie the gates together until they were eventually shut properly later that evening.
In relation to that incident in Sandymount, the report says
There was a delay in closing the tidal flood gates as difficulties were encountered in retrieving the locking pins which were stored in a kiosk adjacent to the Aviva Stadium.
The city council’s Drainage Division has reviewed its protocol for closure of these gates, the report says, and promises in future that it will be closing the gates on foot of both tidal and pluvial adverse weather forecasts, but this will be ”subject to staff availability”.
Overall, the report stated that drainage systems across the city became overwhelmed and gullies could not be cleared until waters subsided.
It recommended Flood Resilience Groups be set up as the best way to identify and deal with problem flooding.
The report said that the Office of Public Works will look at the possibility of carrying out work on the Camac river and the Poddle river which caused heavy flooding in Kilmainham and Crumlin respectively.
Central funding will be sought to carry out works on underground rivers including the Swan which caused flooding in Ballsbridge, the Bradogue in Cabra and the Naniken in Raheny.
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