Where is the Govenrnment helping through the Floods?

Dannyboy83

nesf wrote: »

Honestly, Governments aren't as important when a disaster strikes as they are before it is. Setting up the proper mechanisms set up to distribute aid/support/whatever. Seriously, looking at Cork city, we can't actually complain that much. The army was out on day one doing superb work along with many other branches of the public service. There wasn't any confusion as to who was to do what, the city council had a preexisting group already set up for this eventuality and the organised between the various groups, army, Gardaí etc, how to get everything done.

The central Government in Dublin has little or no role to directly play in these situations. It's a local Government problem and the ideal person to be overseeing relief efforts is someone on the ground at the location not someone in an office half-way across the country.

Yes, I agree, in fact I would say that local government did quite well.
The response out here was very fast anyway, some of the guards cars were knackered when they could have been moved to high ground because they were out doing their thing.
(On a sidenote, one thing which really pissed me off was the fact that traffic were allowed to clog up the whole town, when they easily have been diverted to the bypass. Probably the worst traffic I've ever seen in the town. It made the whole clean up so much more difficult and most of the traffic was simply people coming down to see the damage)

But, leaving that aside, I agree with your point about the central government role being to prevent the disaster i.e. stage 1.
But isn't it then also their responsibility for recovery - stage 3, i.e. after the immediate clean up/local government have wrapped up on stage 2 ?

So far, I've heard nothing about stage 3, other than €10m will be available.
I am, of course, not allowing for the fact that the government are extremely slow and other catastrophes have popped up such as the clerical abuse, but in this type of situation, a quick response is vital.

nesf

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

Yes, I agree, in fact I would say that local government did quite well.
The response out here was very fast anyway, some of the guards cars were knackered when they could have been moved to high ground because they were out doing their thing.
(On a sidenote, one thing which really pissed me off was the fact that traffic were allowed to clog up the whole town, when they easily have been diverted to the bypass. Probably the worst traffic I've ever seen in the town. It made the whole clean up so much more difficult and most of the traffic was simply people coming down to see the damage)

But, leaving that aside, I agree with your point about the central government role being to prevent the disaster i.e. stage 1.
But isn't it then also their responsibility for recovery - stage 3, i.e. after the immediate clean up/local government have wrapped up on stage 2 ?

So far, I've heard nothing about stage 3, other than €10m will be available.
I am, of course, not allowing for the fact that the government are extremely slow and other catastrophes have popped up such as the clerical abuse, but in this type of situation, a quick response is vital.

We're still in stage 2 and it's not at all clear yet just what stage 3 will involve (we've no accurate estimates of damage caused etc). I wouldn't expect stage 3 to really start until floodwaters recede in the Shannon area and the damage can be totted up.

Dannyboy83

nesf wrote: »

We're still in stage 2 and it's not at all clear yet just what stage 3 will involve (we've no accurate estimates of damage caused etc). I wouldn't expect stage 3 to really start until floodwaters recede in the Shannon area and the damage can be totted up.

I would have said that we were already in Stage 3 here, a lot of the damage seems to have been calculated since early last week, and there was a PDF published which listed the damage to UCC.
http://www.ucc.ie/en/media/Report-on-Major-Flood-Damage.pdf

I take your point tho, they probably need to have a final evaluation before they start allocating funds (which will probably be too late anyway)

nesf

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

I would have said that we were already in Stage 3 here, a lot of the damage seems to have been calculated since early last week, and there was a PDF published which listed the damage to UCC.
http://www.ucc.ie/en/media/Report-on-Major-Flood-Damage.pdf

I take your point tho, they probably need to have a final evaluation before they start allocating funds (which will probably be too late anyway)

UCC is "public" essentially and won't need to be allocated funds in the same way as private household etc. We've 10 million as a band aid, the real money will come once they've an idea of the level of damage countrywide is.

ninty9er

I think the intial media coverage was quite strong, and over on the Limerick City forum there is criticism of "sensationalist and irresponsible" reporting, which was just a precaution. The worst is also yet to come for Limerick as the Atlantic will hit Spring Tide on Tuesday evening leaving nowhere for the floodwaters to empty.

The city has so far been visibly clear of any major threat of the Shannon bursting banks, but further upstream 2 buildings at UL are under constant observation and 1 is sandbagged (the logistics of sandbagging the other being imposible)

Those 2 buildings have been flooded, but not to any major extent, however it is expected that drains may have to be blocked and buildings closed for sanitation reasons on Tuesday evening if the tide does back up the river. There is one roundabout and about 20 of approx 2500 parking spaces under water. Two riverswide campus villages have pumps on standby as the water rises and the riverbank walk is under between 2ft and 6ft of water at points with some higher lying areas of the walk just clear. I really have to commend the work of the Buildings and Estates department in working on this.

I've heard an estimated cost to UCC of €50m including lost research, but that will more than likely rise. As for the relief aid from central government, as most here know I'm a member of said large party, so I'll commend the €2m farm aid package which is open NOW, and think that €10m was a good start given that there is no money, the public sector strike probably had some part in making the money available, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

The €10m is designed to help people in the short term as mentioned by nesf, a band aid, the purpose isn't to repair damage or replace lost items, that cost is inconceivable, but that is what insurers are for, this money is to make sure that everyone affected can continue with their lives until their financial losses are assessed. Considering the numbers affected so far, I'd say €10m is quite reasonable.

Dannyboy83

FYI, Flood alerts issued in Kildare & Dublin

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1129/weather.html

starbelgrade

efb wrote: »

the pop of dublin is lightly less than 1 mill. RoI is about 4 mill. So its not 1/3, its about a 1/4

Yes but you have to allow for the inflationary ego factor.