'It's a disaster' Laois pensioners' home flooded with no insurance

An elderly Laois couple woke up to a contaminated flood in their house last night, after local rivers again burst their banks.

Jimmy and Kathleen O'Neill live on Manor Road in Mountmellick, in a home they cannot get flood insurance on. 

In 2017 after the town's biggest flood in living memory, the couple had to spend huge money and leave their home for eight months to repair it. 

The latest flood happened early on Thursday morning, November 13. It flooded several roads in Mountmellick after days of rain in Laois. More heavy rain is forecast on Friday and Saturday.  PHOTOS: latest Mountmellick flood.

The town is still awaiting flood defences to be built by the Office of Public Works, after the devastating flood of 2017.

This time, Jimmy told the Leinster Express / Laois Live that it is "a disaster" for them.

"It came in, I was awakened by a neighbour at 4 o'clock this morning.

"My neighbour said 'you better get up, there's water all around you'. It was already in the back of the house, coming in through the kitchen into the sitting room. I walked into it, the water had come up through the sewage. 

"We're here ever since trying to pump and trying to get sewage cleared. We're on septic tanks and there's farms at the back of us. It took me six weeks or more to get the smell out the last time. Our daughters came up here. We got it mopped up as quick as we could. 

"It's a disaster. When this happened eight years ago there was 16 inches of water in my house. The council was to do this, that and the other and never done nothing. We're at the mercy of the weather, what we're after having for the last couple of days. Tomorrow is to be another. And what we're going to do, I don't know. We have sandbags, but it's a disaster, it's a nightmare," an exhausted Jimmy said.

Volunteers trying to clear water away from the O'Neill home.

Being a cottage, there is no upstairs to bring furniture and belongings to safety.

The Pound river at the bottom of Jimmy's pretty rear garden remains under flood water, with the storm barrier the only thing keeping it from the house. A timber garden office is built on stilts.

"We'll have to put stuff in our sitting room up on blocks in case it gets in again," Jimmy said.

They are unable to get flood insurance.

"I tried six or seven insurance companies after the big flood. Aviva have the cars for myself and the wife, but the minute you give your Eircode they don't want to know. The insurance man stood and looked at the river beside us and said 'null and void'. We spent €58,000, and eight months we were out of the house. The council never came near us. We were given an apartment to use by a woman whose parents had died.

"We bought the flood gates, I had to pay the council €1,300 for three doors, for the front door, back door and garden gate," he said.

The couple are at their wits' end.

"She's all over the place. I'm lost for words, it's the council's fault. What can you do, it's going to happen again and again. They won't clean the rivers. They say the fisheries has their hands tied. If they gave a good cleaning all the way down and dredged them out, all this water would be gone. Now they're making plans and that's not going to take place for another two years or something. It's a total disaster, this is what we are living with now," Jimmy said. 

Another elderly neighbour could not make a hospital scan appointment on Thursday morning because Manor Road was impassable with floods. 

Lucky this time, Patricia Horan is mostly concerned for her neighbours.

"I just went back to bed with the pain. I've been through floods a few times when the children were small, floods coming into the house. It was so long before we got the smell out, it was mixed with sewage. In 1990 my doctor pulled up in a boat and told me to keep the children out of it.

"We have water in the field behind it now where it never flooded before," she said.

Patricia's daughter Aisling is angry at the lack of support she experienced.

Floods on the N80 road in Irishtown, Mountmellick at noon on Thursday, November 13. Photos: Leinster Express

"I came here at 7.45am and our neighbour Emmett was out, he was up all night, he's worn out. The water was coming through the gullies to mammy's front gate. I came to light her fire, there was nobody telling anyone to stop coming down, nobody directing traffic, cars were coming down pushing water into houses. I started ringing people at 8.04am, we started directing traffic, we felt we had a duty of care. I rang the Gardaí twice and they arrived at 9.30, and nobody has done anything.

"In the middle of it all the council drove down with an empty truck, no sandbags. This is going on since I was nine. We're fortunate we haven't been flooded in years but Emmett has, and Kathleen O'Neill, it's a disgrace. And nobody doing anything," Aisling said.

Flooding began in the area at 7.30pm on Wednesday night, rushing off Baker's Field into the laneway next to another houses. Fire crews from Portlaoise and Mountmellick attended and cleared out gullies that night. 

"Only for they came in time it would have been flooded," a resident said.

Noelle McGuirke lives in the house beside the laneway.

"In 2017 the whole bottom floor got flooded, but it's coming up again. We can't get flood insurance. I'm terrified, we're getting prepared. We have no sandbags yet, we had to have a rant at the council and they said we can go and get sandbags in Conor Davis park. It's nearly eight years, I know they have to get things in place with engineers but come on," she said.

Mountmellick fire crew were on the scene throughout Thursday, pumping away water and monitoring flood levels.

Laois County Council say they have a team monitoring the flood levels around Laois, in a statement to the Leinster Express / Laois Live given at lunchtime on Thursday.

They said the Mountmellick rivers have hit their highest levels since sensors were in stalled in 2019, and say more flooding is expected.

"Laois County Council's Severe Weather Assessment Team has been monitoring the water levels across County Laois. The group met yesterday, this morning and are due to meet again this afternoon. Having regard to background river levels together with forecasts for more rain tomorrow, the SWAT will continue to meet, as required, to manage an effective response to the flood issues arising.

"Regarding Mountmellick, Laois County Council have been on the ground since yesterday and delivered sandbags to properties where the potential of flooding was anticipated. So far there have been reports of two properties impacted, these properties were attended to and provided with sandbags. Additional sandbags will be deployed, as required.

"Since their provision in 2019, the river gauges at Manor Road and Chapel Street, installed to advise the design of the Mountmellick Flood Relief Scheme, recorded their highest river levels this morning.

The Owenass River in Irishtown, with the planning notice for Mountmellick Flood Relief Scheme on the bridge.

"Water levels are currently receding, but more rain is expected tomorrow. The Severe Weather Assessment Team will continue to monitor water levels in order to anticipate where flooding is likely to occur and to provide assistance, where possible.

"Pending delivery of the Mountmellick Flood Relief Scheme, Laois County Council continues to implement an ongoing regime of effective river maintenance, where impacts of flooding are managed and reduced. For flood events such as this mornings, the value of this Programme is evident.

Flooded Baker's Field in Mountmellick on Thursday, November 13. Photo: Kevin Byrne

"Motorists are asked to avoid those roads where flooding persists. Where this is not possible, please be aware that driving behaviour can cause surges of floodwater into adjoining properties, so please proceed with due care and attention.

Read also: Councillors raise concern of floods to Laois County Council after thousands of acres flooded