Galway facing €75 million cost of storm damage

THE worst storms and sea surges in living memory last weekend has devastated large chunks of the West Coast leaving a repair bill that will run into several million euro – some locals described it as a ‘mini-tsunami’ that lasted for a fortnight.

Two storms though did the real damage – on Friday morning and Sunday night/Monday morning last – taking chunks off the coastline from the Salthill Prom in Galway city to Cleggan on the western tip of Connemara.

The storms affected the living and the dead with four graveyards damaged – in one case there were reports of human remains being washed up as the sea sheared through the coastal defences. Graveyards at Ballyconneely, Roundstone, Carna, Carraroe and Ballinahown were damaged.

Residents of the three Aran Islands and Inishbofin also bore the brunt of the storm swells with roads and walls washed away, boats destroyed, cars washed into the sea and piers badly damaged.

“There is real devastation across the coast of Connemara and the Islands. Whole chunks of roads have been washed away – even at this early stage, I would estimate that the repair bill will be somewhere between €50 million and €75 million,” Sinn Féin Senator, Trevor Ó Clochartaigh told the Connacht Tribune.

The Carna native said that it was definitely the most damaging combination of storm and sea conditions over recent decades. “Even the older people say that the damage wasn’t nearly as bad when Hurricane Debbie struck in 1961 – last weekend paving slabs at Spiddal Prom were tossed around like paper bags by the sea,” said Senator Ó Clochartaigh.

Galway County Council crews worked over the weekend to clear the worst affected roads and this week Council engineers and staff are in the early stages of damage assessment as the Government prepares to lodge an application for EU aid to the European Commission.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.