Flooding on the main street in Graiguenamanagh. Pic: Jim Campbell
BUSINESS OWNERS across the south east are counting the cost of Storm Frank this week after it wreaked havoc with torrential rain, high winds and severe flooding across the region.
While the general New Ross town and district areas were not as badly affected as other regions just 12 minutes further up the river Barrow the town of Graignamanagh was like a war zone in the aftermath of the storm with both the Barrow and smaller river Duiske breaking their banks and completely flooding the town centre.
Arguably, it was the Duiske that actually caused the most damage as it surged through businesses from the back before bursting out through front doors and windows onto the main street – which at times on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning looked like a river itself.
The following morning the full effects of the flood were clearly visible with the town’s main square looking like a lake.
Doran’s SuperValu was one of the worst affected premises but numerous other buildings received extensive damage as a result of the flood water.
One business owner who spoke to the Echo described the scene as “a nightmare”.
Ken O’Shea, who runs O’Shea’s Hardware and Fuel Merchants, said he was one of the lucky ones as his business is located in an area that wasn’t as badly affected as others.
However, like many other business owners and residents he attended the scene on Tuesday night to see what he could do to help.
“There was absolutely nothing that could be done about it,” he said.
“The back river [the Duiske] burst its banks and that was it,” he added.
Mr. O’Shea recalled a similar scene around six or seven years ago but said it had not occurred to the same scale as it did last week.
“The emergency services had to break down some of the front doors to let the water out because it was rising high inside the buildings,” he said.
“It was just like something out of a nightmare.”
Work was done in the past to try and prevent flooding in the town including the Duiske being dredged deeper, however, as Mr. O’Shea said: “This time the volume of water was so much that nothing could be done. We were surprised the back bridge wasn’t swept out of it.”
“The flow of water was fierce fast,” he said.
