Flooding

dmc17

Nice out there this morning

RoisinD

Great interview on John Cooke, Clare FM this morning with Kit Lysaght from Liscannor. She really told it how it is. The whole of the coast has been badly affected by the sea not just Lahinch. Her description of sitting in her house on Liscannor pier not knowing what the sea was going to do next was frightening. Her castigation of local politicians and Clare county council was great to listen to as none of them had bothered to make contact with her or her brother next door to ensure they were ok. Made a change from an interview I heard with Michael Vaughan a hotelier in Lahinch who was on with Mary Wilson on RTE radio yesterday. His only concern was that the prom in Lahinch be restored as quickly as possible. No thoughts for anyone else least of all his neighbours in Liscannor and Clahane. In fact he had to be prompted by Mary Wilson re the road closure to Liscannor.

Kit also had words for those who come 'sightseeing' with no thought for their own safety or indeed for the emergency services who may have to take action in the event of something going wrong. Indeed the bottom video above illustrates the risks people take with no thought for their own safety or indeed the safety of others.

Some of those other areas that have been affected incude Carrigaholt, Kilbaha, Doonbeg, Quilty, White Strand, Liscannor, Clahane, Doolin, Fanore and Ballyvaughan. Indeed the whole west coast of our county. To listen to most of the media it seems that Lahinch is about the only place in Clare affected. To be fair to ClareFM they did try to redress the balance today.

Good luck also to Doolin Coast Guard whose lack of facilities has been well documented in the past and whose new station is currently being built at last. However their premises were badly damaged the other night too.

Palmach

RoisinD wrote: »

Her castigation of local politicians and Clare county council was great to listen to as none of them had bothered to make contact with her or her brother next door to ensure they were ok.

It is not a politicians job to be going around phoning people to see if they are ok. I know she has had a hard time but it is not the fault of the politicians.

haybob

RoisinD wrote: »

Great interview on John Cooke, Clare FM this morning with Kit Lysaght from Liscannor. She really told it how it is. The whole of the coast has been badly affected by the sea not just Lahinch. Her description of sitting in her house on Liscannor pier not knowing what the sea was going to do next was frightening. Her castigation of local politicians and Clare county council was great to listen to as none of them had bothered to make contact with her or her brother next door to ensure they were ok. Made a change from an interview I heard with Michael Vaughan a hotelier in Lahinch who was on with Mary Wilson on RTE radio yesterday. His only concern was that the prom in Lahinch be restored as quickly as possible. No thoughts for anyone else least of all his neighbours in Liscannor and Clahane. In fact he had to be prompted by Mary Wilson re the road closure to Liscannor.

Kit also had words for those who come 'sightseeing' with no thought for their own safety or indeed for the emergency services who may have to take action in the event of something going wrong. Indeed the bottom video above illustrates the risks people take with no thought for their own safety or indeed the safety of others.

Some of those other areas that have been affected incude Carrigaholt, Kilbaha, Doonbeg, Quilty, White Strand, Liscannor, Clahane, Doolin, Fanore and Ballyvaughan. Indeed the whole west coast of our county. To listen to most of the media it seems that Lahinch is about the only place in Clare affected. To be fair to ClareFM they did try to redress the balance today.

Good luck also to Doolin Coast Guard whose lack of facilities has been well documented in the past and whose new station is currently being built at last. However their premises were badly damaged the other night too.

Anytime I have heard Michael Vaughan in various media he is moaning about something, not wanting to pay the minimum wage, poor season for tourism, working too many hours the man badly needs a PR company

RoisinD

Palmach wrote: »

It is not a politicians job to be going around phoning people to see if they are ok. I know she has had a hard time but it is not the fault of the politicians.

I could have phrased that better. Kit represented the feeling of many in the different areas that politicians from almost every party have been crawling all over Lahinch for the past few days with their soundbytes.They are the ones who have been contacted in the past by people in Liscannor and other areas about the lack of proper sea defences, something which they have chosen to ignore. If they are not responsible for allocating funding and meeting the needs of their constituents then who is?
We have seen that some people in Clare are cut off, some on the point of losing their homes and the focus for some seems to be elsewhere.

RoisinD

haybob wrote: »

Anytime I have heard Michael Vaughan in various media he is moaning about something, not wanting to pay the minimum wage, poor season for tourism, working too many hours the man badly needs a PR company

Normally I ignore most of what he says but yesterday it was what he didn't say that was interesting. Rather embarrassing that Mary Wilson had to point the local road closure. Indeed there were many road closures in the area with anyone traveling from Liscannor having to detour via Kilshanny.

Palmach

RoisinD wrote: »

I could have phrased that better. Kit represented the feeling of many in the different areas that politicians from almost every party have been crawling all over Lahinch for the past few days with their soundbytes.They are the ones who have been contacted in the past by people in Liscannor and other areas about the lack of proper sea defences, something which they have chosen to ignore. If they are not responsible for allocating funding and meeting the needs of their constituents then who is?
We have seen that some people in Clare are cut off, some on the point of losing their homes and the focus for some seems to be elsewhere.

Don't worry the locals are coming up. I expect Tom Coughlan to get it hot and heavy for the enxt 5 months.

poppyvally

was there on Sunday.& got soaked. there were more people there than I ever saw at any seaside resort in the middle of summer!

growler

RoisinD wrote: »

Some of those other areas that have been affected incude Carrigaholt, Kilbaha, Doonbeg, Quilty, White Strand, Liscannor, Clahane, Doolin, Fanore and Ballyvaughan. Indeed the whole west coast of our county. To listen to most of the media it seems that Lahinch is about the only place in Clare affected. To be fair to ClareFM they did try to redress the balance today.

.

Clahane must have taken a real battering, that road has been trying hard to collapse into the sea for many years, wouldn't be at all surprised if it made it this time. Anyone been up there?

dmc17

growler wrote: »

Clahane must have taken a real battering, that road has been trying hard to collapse into the sea for many years, wouldn't be at all surprised if it made it this time. Anyone been up there?

Yeah, the road was barely walkable. The houses took a battering too

angelfire9

Nice stones!
Awful destruction

windy shepard henderson

it seems to be a familiar scene up and down the coast , everywhere destroyed i heard somewhere that the government had 45 million set aside for the nationwide damage, i doubt that would cover a fraction of the clare coast line , emergency funding is needed immediately , the tourism trade kicks into gear in around 4 months time the last thing you'd want to do is turn the coast line into a building site

Jim Martin

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

it seems to be a familiar scene up and down the coast , everywhere destroyed i heard somewhere that the government had 45 million set aside for the nationwide damage, i doubt that would cover a fraction of the clare coast line , emergency funding is needed immediately , the tourism trade kicks into gear in around 4 months time the last thing you'd want to do is turn the coast line into a building site

Just discussing problem on ClareFM - estimated Carrigaholt alone will need €5 million!

dpofloinn

An estimated minimum of E23.5 to repair the damage donr to infrastructure in Clare alone http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/storms-cost-clare-and-kerry-councils-46-million-254951.html. I wonder how much of that will be pissed away on consulatants reports and reports about the consultants reports, but more importantly how much is it going to cost to replace all the dog poo that used to line the paths around lahinch?

Jim Martin

dpofloinn wrote: »

An estimated minimum of E23.5 to repair the damage donr to infrastructure in Clare alone http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/storms-cost-clare-and-kerry-councils-46-million-254951.html. I wonder how much of that will be pissed away on consulatants reports and reports about the consultants reports, but more importantly how much is it going to cost to replace all the dog poo that used to line the paths around lahinch?

There was plenty of it there when I walked along Wednesday, mostly trodden on!

growler

Didn't they manage to spend around €400K building that lifeguard hut in Lahinch? God knows how much they'll estimate / actually spend, and it would be a miracle if they get it done by "summer".

It would be a great opportunity to make some serious improvements to the prom, better facilities for surfers, some sheltered seating, bins, platforms for fishing etc. won't hold my breath.

dr.fuzzenstein

Well, I always thought that the promenade in Lahinch was a bit of an ugly concrete monstrosity.
At least not they have a chance of building it up again, bigger and better and most certainly more stylish.
I'm not expecting Cote D'Azur here, but whatever comes after, can only be an improvement.

growler

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

I'm not expecting Cote D'Azur here, but whatever comes after, can only be an improvement.

perhaps a fact finding mission by the good councilors to cote d'azur and maybe hawaii would be in order, particularly at this time of year.....

dr.fuzzenstein

growler wrote: »

perhaps a fact finding mission by the good councilors to cote d'azur and maybe hawaii would be in order, particularly at this time of year.....

And then build another concrete monstrosity...

swoofer

and dont forget the consultants, nobody seems to be questioning why the place fell apart under strong winds and tides.

OldGuysRule

GBCullen
The original prom was designed decades ago with minor changes since. The fact that a coastal structure such as this has lasted this long is amazing in its own right. The storm event that hit the place recently was of serious magnitude and it is important to understand the balance of constraints when designing shore protection.

It would be easy to put in a big, sloped concrete wall to protect the car park and the town, but very quickly the beach would be gone. Alternatively, you can look to nature and see how she has arranged storm beach protection (the nice rounded stones in huge piles at the back of undisturbed beaches such as Doughmore, Spanish Point amongst others). However, this arrangement is dynamic and would have been deemed unsuitable for this location with its car park and golf club.

Important thing is that people need to realise that the coastal zone is a dynamic environment and if you start to interfere, it becomes of process of constant management. I feel that the future for Lahinch will eventually involve beach re-nourishment (the pumping of sand from offshore stocks back to reform / reprofile the beach) as per many places in the US, UK.

Regarding your query as to why the consultants (presumably the ones who designed the prom) are not being questionned, it may be more appropriate to question the County Council as to why theb each protection has not been maintained to their design over the decades. . . .

swoofer

good reply and much appreciated.

Jim Martin

OldGuysRule wrote: »

GBCullen
I feel that the future for Lahinch will eventually involve beach re-nourishment (the pumping of sand from offshore stocks back to reform / reprofile the beach) as per many places in the US, UK.

Unfortunately, this doesn't sound too good an option, as experience has shown:

http://www.marinet.org.uk/campaign-article/marinet-briefing-paper

OldGuysRule

Jim Martin wrote: »

Unfortunately, this doesn't sound too good an option, as experience has shown:

http://www.marinet.org.uk/campaign-article/marinet-briefing-paper

Thanks for the article Jim, I hope I did not sound like I was supporting the option of re-nourishment. However, as can be seen in similar instances where a beach tourism dominated area is threatened due to ever decreasing sand levels, it is usually 'hard engineering' options that are proposed and undertaken rather than cyclical, long term soft solutions.

It is worth noting however, that beach re-nourishment can be appropriate in certain circumstances, but careful, holistic coastal zone modelling, together with lots of long term knowledge and experience, is required. This sort of specialist design is in its infancy here, but in the US there is a growing body of knowledge with good and bad experiences.

dmc17

More of the same out there this morning

colm_mcm

Heard Lahinch got hit again.

dee_mc

Lahinch SeaWorld closed for the day (the Operation Transformation national swim day was planned for today)
Link to video of waves at prom this morning
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=369786473162867&set=vb.213067035501479&type=2&theater

dmc17

It'll most likely be much the same at around 6 this evening

finbarrk

This evenings tide isn't as high as this mornings or tomorrow mornings. 5.4m this evening and 5.6m tomorrow morning at around 6.30.

Radio5

Shocking photo of Kilbaha with the article in this weekend's Times.