Cork floods Jan 2014

hoodwinked · 02-01-2014 7:38pm #1

Cork City is flooding again

photos's on twitter showing how bad it is:

South Mall:

Oliver Plunkett Street:

i reckon if the water has hit oliver plunkett street it is going to be bad again.

calnand · 02-01-2014 7:42pm

It's high tide now so it'll start going away soon. But if the rain continues it could be very bad tonight.

run_Forrest_run · 02-01-2014 8:00pm

fingers crossed it won't be as bad as previous years...very worrying for residents and business owners alike.

Is there anything that can be done to prevent this by the authorities? Flood prevention etc? Are the council to blame for not using money to the right affect while wasting millions on a hanging garden?? :rolleyes: ...just askin'...

pwurple · 02-01-2014 8:05pm

It's high tide mixed with heavy rain. I'm no fan of the council, but it's hard for them to control either of those things... nowhere for the water to flow to at high tide.

Jimmy Bottles · 02-01-2014 8:11pm

pwurple wrote: »

It's high tide mixed with heavy rain. I'm no fan of the council, but it's hard for them to control either of those things... nowhere for the water to flow to at high tide.

I for one cannot workout how cork floods so easily. If anything, Cork is the city that should flood the least as it has the number one piece of anti-flood technology in all of Ireland.

The Iniscarra Dam and the lake behind it.

A small bit of joined up thinking will prevent flooding in Cork in almost 100% of cases. Its simple. Drain the lake down to half its usual level during winter months. When there is very heavy rain, reduce the water flow out of the dam and leave the water levels rise. If the lake is at half level, they have loads of room to play with.

The only downside is a fall off in electricity production. A small price to pay to stop the city flooding.

ilovesmybrick · 02-01-2014 8:16pm

Jimmy Bottles wrote: »

I for one cannot workout how cork floods so easily. If anything, Cork is the city that should flood the least as it has the number one piece of anti-flood technology in all of Ireland.

The Iniscarra Dam and the lake behind it.

A small bit of joined up thinking will prevent flooding in Cork in almost 100% of cases. Its simple. Drain the lake down to half its usual level during winter months. When there is very heavy rain, reduce the water flow out of the dam and leave the water levels rise. If the lake is at half level, they have loads of room to play with.

The only downside is a fall off in electricity production. A small price to pay to stop the city flooding.

It's fairly simple why Cork floods so much, the city centre is a collection of islands and river inlets that were covered over to create roads. Look at the building fronts like Le Chateau and some of the other buildings on South Mall, they have the weird entrance with steps up to another door because the lower level, what is now the front entrance, was actually a goods entrance for material being brought to the door by boat. Grand Parade, Patrick St., South Mall, Washinton St etc. were all river tributaries until the mid-eighteenth century. The dam keeps the city from flooding quite as much as it did in the past and slows the Lee down coming through the city.

Rosswind · 02-01-2014 8:30pm

Spring tides this week would flood lower parts of cork city regardless of weather conditions. Add flood water from the lee, curraheen etc with low atmospheric pressure and a southeasterly breeze creates perfect conditions for excessive flooding. Nothing the council can do really.

spcleigh · 02-01-2014 8:34pm

any update so far?

hoodwinked · 02-01-2014 8:37pm

spcleigh wrote: »

any update so far?

water is receding apparently but will be 6 inch's higher at high tide in the morning.

Pro Hoc Vice · 02-01-2014 8:39pm

Jimmy Bottles wrote: »

I for one cannot workout how cork floods so easily. If anything, Cork is the city that should flood the least as it has the number one piece of anti-flood technology in all of Ireland.

The Iniscarra Dam and the lake behind it.

A small bit of joined up thinking will prevent flooding in Cork in almost 100% of cases. Its simple. Drain the lake down to half its usual level during winter months. When there is very heavy rain, reduce the water flow out of the dam and leave the water levels rise. If the lake is at half level, they have loads of room to play with.

The only downside is a fall off in electricity production. A small price to pay to stop the city flooding.

Cork has historically two different types of flooding. The fist is river flooding to the west since the building of the dam there has if I'm correct been one serious flooding incident. The second type is flooding of the east of the city caused by spring tides and heavy rainfall. Cork got its name from the Irish Corcaigh or Marsh. A large area of the city is still called the marsh. Cork also had the name Venice of the North.

spcleigh · 02-01-2014 8:40pm

has it affected any businesses yet?

corkgsxr · 02-01-2014 8:50pm

Jimmy Bottles wrote: »

I for one cannot workout how cork floods so easily. If anything, Cork is the city that should flood the least as it has the number one piece of anti-flood technology in all of Ireland.

The Iniscarra Dam and the lake behind it.

A small bit of joined up thinking will prevent flooding in Cork in almost 100% of cases. Its simple. Drain the lake down to half its usual level during winter months. When there is very heavy rain, reduce the water flow out of the dam and leave the water levels rise. If the lake is at half level, they have loads of room to play with.

The only downside is a fall off in electricity production. A small price to pay to stop the city flooding.

Limerick controls the opening and closing of the dam so its not as easy to regulate. But still no excuse

Do people remember almost constant dredging of the waterways? I haven't seen it in years. Silt builds up and river capacity goes down. City floods easyer

SeaFields · 02-01-2014 9:04pm

The dam is used very effectively to control flooding and has been for a long time. But because of the citys location, as mentioned by a previous poster, it can only do so much. Also the water above the dam only accounts for 60% of the inflow to the Lee system. Thats 40% of a system the dam doesnt have control over in addition to the tidal system.

Outkast_IRE · 02-01-2014 9:15pm

I would say there is nothing that could be done in the dam in the last few months to prevent these types of floods as the main factors are.

1. Highest tides of the year literally leaving nowhere for the water to flow to.
2. Land is saturated due to these very wet weather systems we have been subject to the last month.
3. Low pressure with regards to the weather has a large effect on the height of the tides etc.
4. Wind direction in this case blowing water in towards the city, has a notable effect too.

This is a problem cork will have to live with, and has always lived with in the past, if there was any sense there would be a concerted effort when looking at planning applications for any building or renovation in these areas to ask what are your flood defences and how will you cope with these regular floods. The most obvious way to cope is to have steps up into the building and ensure any basements have the necessary anti flooding measures. Or to restrict the building of basements.

corkgsxr · 02-01-2014 9:25pm

SeaFields wrote: »

The dam is used very effectively to control flooding and has been for a long time. But because of the citys location, as mentioned by a previous poster, it can only do so much. Also the water above the dam only accounts for 60% of the inflow to the Lee system. Thats 40% of a system the dam doesnt have control over in addition to the tidal system.

Ah stop the dam can raise the water by a metre in ten mins if they open up. So it has a big effect and they do very little to moderate it its normally too late in realising its too high for a weather event and have to release anyway