This article is from page 1 of the 2014-02-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
AS THE waters begin to recede along the Clare coast, the focus now turns inland with council engineers monitoring extremely high water levels on a number of the county’s rivers, including the Fergus.
Clare County Council yesterday warned people in Ennis and along the lower Shannon area to be extremely vigilant and take all necessary precautions, with heavy rain likely to swell rivers further in the coming days.
According to rainfall figures recorded at Shannon Airport, the county has already received almost a quarter (194.6mm) of the total rain that fell on the 12 months of 2013. A further 3 inches of rain, or 76mm, is expected to fall in the county over the next seven days.
Senior engineer Tom Tiernan said yesterday that newly constructed flood defenses in Ennis have worked well to date, but warned that the expected rainfall is likely to test these defenses to their limits.
People living in sections of Ennis where flood defenses have not yet been complete have been asked to be particularly vigilant in the com- ing days.
“The pressure on coastal areas is starting to lessen – we’re not out of the woods yet but the tides are starting to drop back. There has been a lot of rainfall and more on the way so there is a real possibility of local flooding in certain areas,” said Mr Tiernan yesterday.
“The Fergus is our main focus at the moment. The new defenses that were built have worked, and that is very significant. But all of the flood relief works have not yet been completed and we would ask that people in flood prone areas would remain vigilant.”
Council engineers are continuously monitoring river levels in the Fergus and in a number of at-risk rivers across the county.
Contingency arrangements are in place to increase pumping capacity in certain areas and a number of emergency flood alleviation measures are also in place.