'I was flooded three times — I can't do a fourth': Midleton businesses facing struggle for survival

Ms Dunlea said that business owners are “constantly on alert” to the risk of storms bringing future flooding to the East Cork town.

“We as business owners are constantly on alert and waiting for the day the water and flooding will come back," she said.

Ms Dunlea said after the October 18 floods she wondered if she had the heart to reopen but decided she would do so.

“I had to reopen because people were constantly texting and calling because children need shoes,” Ms Dunlea said.

Rachel McCarthy of Ina McCarthy Flowers agrees that rain and flooding is never far from the minds of Midleton business owners.

Ms McCarthy runs the flower shop her mother founded in 2006. She told the Irish Examiner that the business suffered €87,000 worth of damage, stock loss, and building repairs in Storm Babet. She applied for funding under the Flood Relief Scheme announced by the Government in the wake of the storm

“I just got approved for my funding last week," she said. "I only got €40,000, but it is better than a kick in the teeth, as they say.

“I went away after Christmas when the renovations were being done and I was constantly checking my phone and my husband was like ‘put your phone down — what can you do about it if it does flood?’ and that is the attitude I’ve had to take on because you wouldn’t sleep,” she said.

Ms McCarthy welcomed the €40,000 in funding but is worried about the long-term financial impact of the flood.

It is really hard to make money in the florist industry as our profit margins are really, really tight, so everything I earned just goes back into the shop. I owe my suppliers an absolute fortune at this stage, on top of the flood work.

Ms McCarthy says she did not receive her full request for €87,000 from the Flood Relief Scheme because her original insurance policy did not include the Christmas stock that was in store that day.

The scheme, administered by the Irish Red Cross at the request of the Government, provides a once-off ex-gratia contribution towards the costs of returning business premises to their pre-flooding condition, including the replacement of flooring, fixtures, fittings, and damaged stock.

“I tried to argue that it was coming up to Christmas, so I had all my Christmas stock in so, of course there was more stock than an average week.

“I also had wedding flowers in, and they were €2,000 alone and they just ended up in the water. I feel like things like that weren’t taken into consideration.

“I’m going to be a long time recovering from this,” she said.

Her business is one of the 224 businesses across the country that received some of the €6,302,784.84 from the Emergency Business Relief Scheme, as of February 22, 2024.

The next payment run will see seven more businesses receive some of the €193,770.88, which will increase the total paid to €6,496,555.72 between 231 applicants.

A spokesperson for the Irish Red Cross told the Irish Examiner that 349 businesses applied for the Emergency Business Relief Scheme before the deadline in mid-December.

They said that of the 349 applicants, 51 applications are incomplete and require further clarification and 61 were not eligible or withdrew from the scheme.

Two applicants have been verified by the local authority and a request for their bank details has been made, while four applicants are awaiting verification.

It is believed that businesses in Co Cork received the vast majority of the funding. However, not all businesses in the town are eligible for funding.

Ana Hrgovan of Ana’s Happy Scissors Hair Salon on Broderick St in Midleton estimates that between €45,000 and €50,000 worth of damage was done to her business due to the floods last October, and she is waiting for her insurance company to compensate.

“I had to put up my own money because even though I got €10,000 from my insurance as an interim payment, I’m waiting for the rest [from insurance],” Ms Hrgovan said.

According to Ms Hrgovan her insurance company is requesting her to provide invoices from those who worked on the premises, but she only has quotes at this stage.

“I only have quotations from the guys who did the job. I don’t have the invoice yet because I haven’t paid them in total yet,” she said.

She claims her insurance offered her €26,000, which would not cover the cost of the repairs.

Her insurance policy renewed on November 8 last year, just three weeks after the floods caused by Storm Babet and her insurance company refused to offer flood insurance within the new policy.

As the flooding happened while her policy had flood insurance, she was not entitled to the supports offered by the Irish Red Cross on behalf of the Government.

“I could understand if they said to me that you can get flood insurance but it would be higher because you have a claim. I would understand that I would have to spend more but what happens if a flood happens again?

“What am I going to do? I will lose [more of] my own money,” Ms Hrgovan said.

”I tried to ask for help from the Government but they said since I had flood insurance, they said no.”

 “My loss adjuster is trying to get more money because the second time they tried to offer me €26,000 but I said that is not enough.

“It is crazy because I put in my own money and the insurance think they don’t need to pay if I don’t have invoices and I don’t have flood insurance any more,” she added.

Her business reopened four weeks after closing but she said the street in general is “not as busy as before".

On Tuesday, a petition with 15,000 signatures was delivered to the Dáil by protesters angry at what they claim is a lack of urgency to protect East Cork from future flood devastation.

The Midleton and East Cork Flood Action Group said families are living "in fear" of the next heavy rains, as they protested outside the Dáil over what they claim is lack of urgency in providing measures to protect the areas from flooding.

Chairperson for the group, Mona Stromsoe, said they are hoping that the Government will “do something and encourage Cork County Council or the Office of Public Works” (OPW) to put some interim measures in place to prevent the East Cork area from flooding again.

“We understand that the substance system is going to take a number of years, we don’t fully understand why it takes that long. It has been explained to us, but we are not happy with the information,” Ms Stromsoe told the Irish Examiner.

She claimed that there are “lots of smaller” measures that could be taken, which would need an overview from the council and the OPW, but “there does not seem to be the will to do it”.

We are being told that you can put your property back together, but this could happen again anytime. It happened in 2015, it could happen again next year, the year after — who is to say it won’t happen next week?

“Our Government is supposed to protect us, and we feel that this isn’t the case, that we have been abandoned and left to our own devices.”