Ashbourne suffers flash floods but residents rally

Several Ashbourne houses were flooded and many more threatened by rising floodwaters on Saturday evening following hours of torrential rain. Roads in the area were blocked and many motorists were stranded, while council staff and fire personnel worked for hours to minimise the impact of the flooding. One woman had to rush from her home with a baby just before her house flooded and houses in Garden City, Baltrasna, Deerpark and Huntsgrove were also damaged in the deluge. In Deepark, neighbours got together to form a human chain and bucketed the water from a flooded house in a bid to minimise the impact. Baltrasna resident, Mary O"Rourke, was at home with her grandchild when the water rose from the drains like a 'tsunami" at around 7pm. 'It started raining around 3pm and a few hours later, I knew I was going to be flooded,' she recalled. 'I was on my own with the baby because the rest of the family were at a wedding,' she added. Mary rushed from the house with her grandchild just minutes before the floodwaters poured into her home. There was up to four inches of water in the house and her family were busy cleaning up over the weekend. Her son, Paddy, said that Meath County Council needed to sort out the drains as they had been blocked for quite a while. Elizabeth Cooper"s garage in the Castle Crescent estate was flooded and the waters rose right up to her front door, seeping into the hall. 'The drains weren"t able to cope. There were several houses along this street flooded,' she said. The home of her neighbour, former councillor John Fanning, escaped the flood. 'The road was very badly flooded, the water was rising and was up to the front door of several houses, but two fire engines spent several hours battling to stop the floods,' he said. Stephen Garry, whose home was badly flooded in 2002, causing €120,000 worth of damage, had an extremely anxious night fearing another disaster at his house. As well as the water coming perilously close to the house, his daughter was stranded in Santry for over six hours unable to make her way home through the floods. He had installed a pumping system at his home in a bid to prevent further flooding, but the water came 'too close for comfort' and the council had tankers out 'pumping like mad'. He said: 'We escaped by the skin of our teeth, but it was very worrying.' Baltrasna resident Conor Tormey said it had been a frightening experience. Although his home wasn"t flooded, the water came very close and the road outside was waterlogged at both ends so they couldn"t get in or out. Local resident PJ Spillane was one of the many motorists who found it nearly impossible to et to Ashbourne on Saturday night. He said it took him almost six hours to travel from the Garden of Remembrance to his home. Cllr Joe Bonner said it had been a frightening night for the people of Ashbourne with several houses damaged by the deluge. He paid tribute to the efforts of local people who helped out their neighbours, particularly in Deerpark, where young and old got together to help clear water from a house that had been flooded. Cllr Bonner said that council staff had done wonderful work battling for hours to keep floodwater away from homes. However, he called for all drains, streams and the river to be cleaned up and all blockages to be removed to prevent further incidents. Meath County Council spokesman Bill Sweeney said that most of the call-outs they received on Saturday were across a large part of south Meath, where houses were threatened with flooding and motorists were in difficulty. He said many of the problems were in Ashbourne where fire units from Ashbourne, Dunshaughlin, Navan and Trim battled to minimise the flooding and council crews from Dunshaughlin and Ashbourne were also out for several hours and remained on standby over the weekend. He said they had to asist a number of motorists who had to abandon their vehicles because of the floodwaters. Mr Sweeney added that the problems arose because of torrential rain which was heavier than anything that could have been predicted. Meanwhile, hundreds of Meath motorists caught up in the flood drama in Dublin found themselves unable to get home for many hours on Saturday night as most of the routes into Meath from the city were closed as parts of them were under water. The N3 at Blanchardstown was closed at Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, while parts of the N4 also were closed by Gardai, as was part of the N1. The N2 was passable beyond Finglas. Many shoppers who were at Blanchardstown Shopping Centre - which feeds out directly onto the N3 - founded themselves stuck for hours in the chaos around the centre, with many motorists having to try and find alternative routes home.