Ballina flooding leaves fish on lawns and buckled electric gates in lakeside town

Flooding around the lakeside town of Ballina has left electric gates buckled and fish on people’s lawns, Nenagh Municipal District Council has been told.

Cllr Phyll Bugler, who represents the town, outlined that there had been six major flooding incidents in the area in the past year, with the last happening as recent as January 12.

“We had one flood in 2010, now we have six,” she revealed.

Cllr Bugler said that the most recent event had buckled electric gates into a house, while residents near the Lower Kilmastulla River had found fish on their lawns after other floods.

“Nothing would have stopped the power of the water on Wednesday,” she said. “We now need help from the outside.”
She also revealed that there had been flooding on Christmas night at Boher road and at Grange, where debris had been left on the road.

“I had to call the emergency services, that’s how bad it was,” she said.

District engineer Barry Murphy described the level of rain that fell as “catastrophic”.

He said that what was being witnessed in Ballina was an “extreme example of climate change”.

Mr Murphy pointed out that the effects of heavy rainfall in the Arra Mountains was being seen on the same day in Ballina.

However, he said that while there were “some deficiencies” in the drainage system, it generally worked. “Some pipes are probably undersized,” he said.

The engineer said that there would be “no quick fix” and solving the issue would need major works that will take years.

District manager Marcus O’Connor agreed Ballina had a problem with overall capacity and with culverts but the council was working with the OPW to increase the size of culverts.

“Ballina is one of the biggest worries in the county,” he said.

Cllr Bugler had also raised flooding on the Ballina to Birdhill road, but Mr O’Connor said that raising the road as part of the works on the new Shannon crossing should go along way to resolving the issue.