News
The wall that saved 100 homes in Ballinasloe
The town of Ballinasloe recently had its biggest scare of flooding since the disaster of 2009 – but the construction of a vital flood wall on the outskirts meant that around 100 homes were saved.
It is one of the few good news stories from the flooding five years ago that left dozens of homes and businesses in Ballinasloe under water for several weeks. The flooding caused €8 million worth of damage.
The rains began in November and continued into the second half of December and forced hundreds of people out of their homes and many into local hotels.
The floods of 2009 proved disastrous for Ballinasloe as many businesses were forced to close up for weeks on end and some are still, more than five years on, are still trying to recover.
Those behind the construction of the flood wall met with members of Ballinasloe Municipal Council last week to outline the benefits it had for the town in the most recent incidents of flooding in November and December and then proposed further flood relief measures.
Mike Tully has been to the forefront of the campaign to ensure that the town does not suffer a disaster like what happened in 2009. He wants a deputation organised to meet the Office of Public Works to ensure that further funding is provided.
The Derrymullen Flooding Group are very active and want funding for the provision of another flood wall at Station Road. They also want measures to be put in place to ensure that flood waters are released at East Bridge in the event of an emergency taking place in the future.
“We had a situation in November,” Mike Tully told The Connacht Tribune. “The waters came up to two and a half feet on the flood wall and fortunately the houses that this wall protects were not affected. If the wall was not in place, the residents would have had to be evacuated.”
For more on this story, see this week’s Connacht Tribune