Burgled, flooded, insurance lapsed and major bills

Although the flood waters have receded, one Walterstown woman has been left counting the cost after her home was flooded during torrential downpours last Wednesday evening. Just four weeks ago, Eileen O"Connor was burgled, and to return to her home last Wednesday evening and find it totally flooded was a further devastating blow. To make matters worse, her home insurance had recently lapsed and she now faces large bills to repair the damage. Mrs O"Connor lives in the Old School House in Walterstown, which dates back to 1868, and got an awful shock when she returned home from work at about 10.30pm. 'I was working in Navan and it took me two and a half hours to come home. I couldn"t believe what I saw. I have been living here 28 years and it has never flooded before. Another man has lived here 63 years and said he never saw anything like it before,' she said. 'We"re in a valley and the water came from under the house and seeped up into the sitting room, hall and bedrooms. The water subsided during the night but it was horrendous.' Mrs O"Connor said the stream beside her house had not burst its banks and the flood water had come down into the valley from the Rock Road and Skyrne Road. 'I loved my little house. Everyone was welcome here. I was burgled four weeks ago and my handbag taken. I can never look on the house in the same way,' said a devastated Mrs O"Connor. She said that recent ill health had meant she put renewing her insurance on the long finger and that she never believed an act of God like this could happen in August. Neighbours had tried to contact Mrs O"Connor to warn her of the flooding but she was at work at the time. On Thursday morning, Mrs O"Connor and her family began the clean up and all the carpets had to be removed from her home. The Skyrne Road in Walterstown suffered major damage and much of the side of the road and the surface was washed away by the flood waters. There is more than two feet of subsidence at parts of the road. The road was one of the worst hit in the county and remains closed this week. Meath County Council Director of Communications Bill Sweeney said that the installation of drainage started on Monday and would continue until Friday. Resurfacing is due to take place next Monday and the road is expected to open on Tuesday. However, Mr Sweeney pointed out that this is weather permitting and that if we have heavy rain again it would impact on this schedule of works. Shocked locals could not believe the flooding as a river of water several feet deep swept through the village on Wednesday evening. One local man, Conor McGrane, was described as a hero for the work he did to protect local houses. Conor used his digger to put a bank of gravel at the entrance to houses in the area to stop the flood waters. 'Conor McGrane assisted everybody in the area. He brought his digger and dropped stones at everybody"s houses to stop the floods going in. He is a hero,' said Joe Murray. A stream behind the hedge along the road burst and water came running down towards Mr Murray"s house and also flooded out onto the road. The water gushed past his newly laid rockery, bringing rocks, stones and plants with it and deposited it on the driveway. The Murrays had to move their cars from the driveways to stop them from being damaged. Some of the flood water entered the house, and hall and sitting room floors were damaged. Mr Murray praised Mr McGrane for his work and said he had taken away part of the bank near his house to divert the water away from the house. 'The water was so fast flowing. I have never seen anything like it. We have had some flooding before but nothing to write home about,' he said. His wife added that if the flooding had happened at 5am, they would have all woken up to a swimming pool. 'Only for Conor, we would have been three feet deep in water,' Mr Murray added. Mr Murray said there had been two people trapped in a car at Walterstown Cross and they had to be rescued by the fire brigade. Local man Martin Kavanagh said: 'I"ve been here a long time and I"ve never seen anything like this before. It was unbelievable. There was a car stuck in a gripe and the fire brigade had to lift a woman from the car.' Others claimed they"d never seen rain this heavy. 'There tends to be some flooding in ordinary rain but you never could comprehend that this could happen. It was freaky. If there was some way to measure the rain that fell, the drops of rain were as big as eggcups,' said Michael McGrane. Meanwhile, the Balrath and Rathfeigh areas also suffered severe flooding last Wednesday evening, and the N2 at Balrath was barely passable. Roads in the Rathfeigh area were also closed for a time. TJ O"Gorman from Balrath Post Office said the water was pouring down the road and from fields onto the road and that all around Balrath Cross was flooded. The grounds all around his house were under water and his pumphouse was flooded but thankfully the water did not make it into his home. He said one car passing had hit the flood and 'took off sideways' though luckily there were no other cars on the road at the time. At Rathfeigh, flood water also swept through the area brining chunks of the road surface with it. Outside Rathfeigh National School, the subsidence was particularly bad. The home of Mary Clarke at Ennistown was flooded and her son John said that only that she was having the house done up, she would have been there at the time. He said the water got in through the vents and that two rooms had flooded and the carpets were destroyed. Mr Clarke explained that there is a small river across the road and the eye of the bridge couldn"t take the water and it had caused it to flood.