Flooding chaos across the county leaves many areas impassable
There was flooding chaos in many parts of Co Meath this morning and throughout the day with many roads completely impassable due to overnight downpours.
Bettystown was one location badly hit. Flooding generally occurs in the area when there is a high tide however this morning the tide was out, a cause for serious concern according to Cllr Sharon Tolan who says she has never seen flooding to this extent in the 21 years she has lived in Bettystown.
"It was chaos this morning. We have had an area now for the past nine or twelve months that has flooded maybe four times. It never flooded in the 21 years that I have lived in Bettystown.
"We can't predict how many times a year these incidents of heavy rainfall are going to happen. What worried me was that generally, flooding occurs when we have high tide but the tide was out this morning so that was particularly concerning.
"It's the area from the Narrowways down to the Tesco Roundabout on the Triton Road and Eastham Road just at the Bettystown Court development. It was literally a river flowing down.
"My own estate and the estates surrounding me were turned into an island this morning. We couldn't get out at Pilltown Bridge that was impassable and we couldn't get out at the roundabout at Eastham Road because that was impassable.
Sandbags used to protect property in Bettystown.
"The whole roundabout was just completely flooded with parents trying to get children to school and parents who work they were trying to cycle or walk. I contacted the schools to let them know that there would be a lot of children arriving in this morning who were soaked through.
"They had to walk through probably two feet of water at least, it was up to their knees.
There are a number of factors causing this unprecedented flooding as Sharon explains:
"We have a lot more building work going on, a lot of our ditches are being piped that would have been natural ditches so I have been on to our engineer and they are working on figuring out a solution as to what has caused this.
"The OPW is going to have to get involved as a matter of urgency to rectify this because there were literally thousands of people impacted this morning between trying to commute to work, get to the train station and try and get children to school.
"Driveways have been considerably mucked up with water flowing into them and debris coming probably from those ditches. These are all the questions I have for our area engineer. The last time it happened we did a significant piece of work on the Narrowways with piping a section but obviously more work needs to be done.
Elsewhere, the location where filming of Hollywood movie 'The Last Duel' is due to take place next month was renamed 'The Last Pool' as the deluge swamped the site near Bective Bridge. Credit: Ian O'Brien.
Work on construction of a new house in Oristown ground to sodden halt. Credit: Alan Browne
This was was the view Derek Carroll had of the Boyne Road at Rosnaree from his tractor cab.
Aurimas Ruikis sent us this video of flooded roads in Dunleer
A bale of silage floating down the Boyne past the Meath Chronicle
This was the very swollen River Boyne flowing under Bellinter Bridge as shot by William Murphy who said: "13 years living here at Oak Lodge, Bellinter Bridge on the Banks of the River Boyne and never seen it as full ...from past experiences even with no more rain this will continue to rise for another 24 hours."
The scene at Bective Mill where the river Boyne burst it's banks. Credit: Ian O'Brien
Water rushes under the Bridge at Marcie Regan's pub in Trim. Credit: Ian O'Brien
