Residents of the Springfield area of Clonlara are said to be stockpiling on supplies for the weekend, for fear they will be become stranded in their homes by floods.
Water levels in the Parteen Weir have been rising this week thanks to the inclement weather conditions and more heavy rain is forecast for the weekend.
The ESB and Clare County Council are monitoring water levels, while sandbags have been put in place in the homes most at risk, for fear that they will flood.
It’s now been four years since six weeks of flooding led to families been evacuated from their homes and the local authority and the OPW are still engaging on putting flood embankments in place as a long term solution.
Springfield resident Gerardine Quinlivan has been telling Clare FM’s James Mulhall that she and other residents in the area have been up during the night checking on the water levels:
Statement from the ESB
ESB regularly issues a five-day forecast for the Shannon catchment, based on the five-day Met Éireann forecast.
The current forecast, issued on Thursday 20 February, predicts that a discharge ranging between 245 cubic metres per second (cumecs) and 280 cumecs will be necessary at the Parteen Weir over the next five days.
The situation is being kept under constant review. As of yesterday at 12 noon, the discharge increased from 210 cumecs to approximately 245 cumecs per second and flooding is not expected to occur as a direct result.
However, if there is heavy flow in the downstream tributaries, flooding may occur below these. The level of discharge remains at 245 cumecs today, though based on the current forecast, this may increase over the coming days.
Discharges above 250m3/s are likely to result in flooding of roads and may affect land and property in the vicinity of the Shannon downstream of Parteen Weir. Note that other areas between Parteen Weir and Limerick may also be vulnerable to flooding due to local issues.
ESB is liaising with the relevant local authorities and local residents on our text alert system have been notified.
The latest ESB forecast and other useful resources on the Shannon are available here
Clare County Council statement
Clare County Council Crisis Management Team met today and is constantly monitoring the situation with regard to rising water levels at Springfield Clonlara. All necessary resources from Clare County Council and the Civil Defence have been deployed to assist with managing the response to the rising water levels. In this regard Clare County Council is in communication with the ESB, local residents and other stakeholders and will continue to monitor the situation over the weekend.
