Damage forces abandonment of Navan blood clinic after deluge

Heavy rain caused part of the ceiling in St Mary"s Community Centre, Navan, to fall while a blood donation clinic was in progress last Wednesday evening and the staff and donors were evacuated from the building. The Irish Blood Transfusion Board (IBTS) clinic was due to take place in the community centre from Tuesday to Friday of last week but damage caused by the torrential rain last Wednesday meant the organisers had to find an alternative location at Simonstown GAA Centre for Thursday and Friday. The clinic was in full swing when part of the ceiling collapsed, though thankfully nobody was injured. Kieran Healy, donor services manager with the IBTS, rushed to the Navan clinic when he heard what happened. He said: 'At about 7pm, people noticed that water was falling from the roof where the clinic was on. Then the water got heavier and the suspended ceiling tiles started to fall down and some of the masonry came with it as well. The team leader judged that there was an immediate danger to people and they evacuated both staff and donors and moved the equipment.' The water came gushing through the damaged ceiling and the local fire service wascalled to the scene and cleared the water channels in the roof. A fire service spokesperson said that the water channels in the roof had become blocked and the water had collected and caused the suspended ceiling to come down. Mr Healy said that a good amount of ceiling tiles came down but that, fortunately, there were no casualties and nobody was hurt. He also said that no equipment like computers was damaged to any great extent, and any blood already taken was not affected. The clinic was due to take place for four days and the equipment would usually be left at the location overnight for the duration. However, the rainfall and fears for flooding meant that the staff had to quickly pack up the equipment and get it out of the community centre. Mr Healy said they were expecting about 75 donations of blood and when the clinic was abandoned they had just 35 donations, which meant a net loss of 40 units of blood. Mr Healy, who is based in Dublin, drove to Navan to endeavour to put together an alternative location for the following day. 'We didn"t want to lose a second clinic and the consequential impact on the blood supply. Our local volunteer organiser, Jim Kealy, who is involved with the Red Cross, helped us to secure a venue in Simonstown Gaels, as an interim measure for Thursday evening and Friday. 'It was a good thing that the people of Navan responded with such a good attendance on Thursday night and Friday. The numbers were very good and we are grateful for the people of Navan for responding this way. If they hadn"t, we would have been down 40 litres of blood, which is a significant amount,' he added. Fr Gerry McCormack, Adm, Navan, said there had been some minimal damage to the roof of the centre and that repairs had been attended to the next day. Last week"s downpours also caused flooding at the Solar nightclub in the Newgrange Hotel, Navan. Navan Fire Brigade was called to the popular local night spot after flash flooding last Wednesday when a number of streets in Navan were swamped by floodwaters. The nightclub opened as usual on Friday night but the normal weekend Saturday and Sunday night events did not go ahead with further heavy rainfall on Saturday blamed for the disruption. The nightclub is scheduled to resume its weekend programme this week.Fire service personnel also were called out to flooding at Cannon Row and Circular Road, Navan, on Wednesday when torrential rain overloaded drains, causing manhole covers to lift off and water to pour out onto the streets. Cannon Row had to be closed to traffic for half an hour and traffic at Circular Road was disrupted for a time as well. There was also widespread flooding in the Drumconrath area last Wednesday evening with two houses being badly affected by floods. At around 6.30pm, Nobber Fire Service was called out to a house at Greenan, Drumconrath, where the ground floor of the house was flooded. The house was badly damaged by the flood water with carpets and wooden floors destroyed. Member of the fire service pumped water from the house and part of a boundary wall also had to be knocked to allow the water recede. It is understood that this house had never flooded before but the torrential rain last Wednesday caused the dwelling to flood for the first time. Later that evening, the fire services were called to a house at Woodtown Lower, near Drumconrath. A stream running along the side of the house was not able to cope with the extra water and it caused flooding at the adjacent house causing some damage. Ardee Fire Service also assisted at the scene.