'We feel abandoned': Midleton residents to protest over lack of interim flood relief after Storm Babet

Organiser Caroline Leahy said: “We have had enough of the talk because it is the same empty cut-and-paste promises and assurances we get all the time.

We need Cork County Council, central Government and the Office of Public Works to stop talking, and start doing.

The 38-year-old legal executive, who was among 600 households whose homes in and around Midleton were flooded last October, added: “Now the cameras and senior ministers have gone, we feel abandoned.

“We don’t doubt that a lot of good work is being done on the main flood relief scheme, and that is to be applauded.

“But given that that project will not be finished for a few years yet, we badly need something to stave off the worst effects of any future flooding.

“At the moment, we have nothing and we are as vulnerable now as we have ever been, despite all the warnings and despite what happened last October.”

As well as grappling with the €70,000 bill for damage to the house she owns with partner Aidan Murphy, she fears it will be flooded again.

Like other residents, she has held onto the sandbags she received during Storm Babet, and she gets “panicky” every time there is heavy rain.

Also, like other residents, she even gets up in the night when there is prolonged rain to check the levels of the river nearby.

Gleann Fia estate resident Christian Kyriacou, in the nearby village of Mogeely, is another organiser of the protest.

Like Ms Leahy, he too gets up to check the three-bed semi he lives in with his wife Milena and their children Ryan, 12, and Mia, 4, is not being flooded.

Virtually all of the ground floor of his three-bed semi was destroyed in the flood and he and his wife and two children now live upstairs as work is still being carried out, eight months later.

“Our house is still a building site, and we are not alone,” he said.

“The protest is being held for a variety of reasons, and the main one is interim flood relief measures, and the lack of them.

But the protest is also trying to draw attention to the ongoing cost to families of the floods and the continued humanitarian issues that still exist.

He added: “I have distributed thousands of leaflets about this march and rally, and if just half of the people who said they would come do turn up, then it will be massive.”

Residents are looking for embankments to be built around estates, anti-flood gates to be provided to private homes and for two bridges in the town to be either removed or rebuilt after they were destroyed in last year’s storm.

They also want the council to clearly state what — if any — interim measures it plans to put in place, and when exactly the work will be done.

The OPW points out that since Storm Babet, identification and roll-out of interim measures has been progressed by Cork County Council.

Interim works planned for the summer 2024 include vegetation channel clearance and removal of deposited material.

It also said the council plans to continue “efforts to reach landowner agreement regarding removal of bridges that were damaged during Storm Babet”.

In addition, Individual Property Protection (IPP) “is being considered” as part of the overall suite of measures for Midleton.

Cork County Council and the OPW are in the process of agreeing the scope and scale of an IPP scheme for Midleton in conjunction with the ongoing assessment of possible advance works.

An OPW spokesperson added: “A decision on this is expected shortly, so IPP can be rolled out by Cork County Council on a phased and targeted basis.

“Advance works involve the delivery of certain elements of the main scheme in specific areas in advance of delivery of the whole scheme (including) construction of embankments at certain locations.

“Assessment of advance works is required to fully understand the impact of such works.

"Construction of isolated sections of defences to protect one area can potentially increase risk at other locations”