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Irish Examiner
04-07-2025
- Climate
- Irish Examiner
Midleton residents fear repeat flooding as storm protection barriers delayed again
When Noreen and Liam Motherway plan a break away, the first thing they do is consult a small book. It is the Union Chandlery South of Ireland Tide Tables. They have not left Ireland since Storm Babet floods swept through their 19th-century riverside house in Midleton in October 2023. Liam and Noreen Motherway have not left Ireland since Storm Babet floods swept through their 19th-century riverside house in Midleton in October 2023. Picture: Neil Michael But before they even dream of being away from the house for even a few hours, they consult the small, pocket-sized book. 'We don't go anywhere without consulting it first,' Noreen said. 'It lets us know when there is a high tide and low tide.' Semi-retired GP Liam, whose practice is in an adjoining building, added: 'The river is tidal, so we are used to it getting high and low twice a day.' They sustained around €100,000 worth of damage during Storm Babet, and the builders only left last month. Because they were badly hit by a flood in 2015, they no longer had any flood insurance, so they have had to cover most of the cost themselves. Liam and Noreen Motherway sustained around €100,000 worth of damage during Storm Babet, and the builders only left last month. Picture: Neil Michael Their hearts sank when they watched from the safety of their stairs to the second floor as water levels gradually rose on the ground floor during Storm Babet. With them were the couple's three dogs - their blind 11-year-old Samoyed dog Pixie, and their two Japanese Spitz dogs Ryo and Bobbie. What they described as 'modest' 2ft-high flood defences for the property's doors and windows a carpenter installed after the 2015 flood failed to hold back the water during Storm Babet. Like anybody who was badly hit in the storm, the Motherways start getting anxious about the weather as October approaches again. Little wonder when you remember the devastation the town and surrounding areas endured. Aerial photographs taken by Guileen Coast Guard published in Ireland and around the world showed the shocking extent of the flooding, with all main routes in and out and most open spaces completely submerged under water. An aerial view of Connolly Street leading up to Midleton Library, on the town's Main Street, during Storm Babet in October 2023. Photo: Guileen Coast Guard unit Local TD James O'Connor described the flash floods as 'biblical'. Around 600 houses were damaged, along with around 300 businesses, some of which have since closed for good. The total cost of the damage wrecked by Storm Babet is estimated to be around €200m. Work by the council since has included making sure drains are being cleared, and dredging sections of the Owenacurra River. An aerial photo of Connolly Street leading up to Midleton Library on the town's Main Street. Picture: Neil Michael But also like so many like the Motherways, anxiety is tinged with a degree of anger. This is because nearly two years after Storm Babet, they and hundreds of others are still waiting for the full roll-out of the Midleton and East Cork Individual Property Protection (IPP) Scheme. Due to begin in 'early 2025', it is still some way off being completed, with just 100 of the 2,000 barriers due to be installed delivered already. Funded by the Office of Public Works (OPW) to the tune of €5.8m, the scheme is to install flood defence barrier systems at front and back doors and low windows. 'We have been measured four times already for the domestic flood barriers and we have been told we will be measured again,' Liam said. 'But we still haven't been told when anybody is coming to do the remedial works. We get a sense that there is a major lack of urgency around the flooding issue. 'The council needs to do what it promised to do, which is to get the IPPs for people and hurry up.' Vivienne Jeffers: 'I felt I couldn't protect my children.' Picture: Neil Michael Vivienne Jeffers agrees. She breaks down when she describes how she felt when the home she shares in nearby Mogeely with her two young children, Daniel, aged 10, and Chloe, aged eight, and husband Shane, flooded. 'It was just me and my children when the house flooded at the time because Shane was at work and the kids were both sick,' she recalls. 'The first I knew about a flood was when someone on our estate's WhatsApp group said they needed sandbags and I looked out my window and realised the water in the street outside the house was too deep to try and drive the car through it. 'So I started grabbing things, towels from upstairs and trying to stop the water coming in the door. 'But it came flooding in. It happened so fast, and rushed into the house, and there was nothing I could do to stop it coming in. 'The floor boards by the door popped and blocked my front door. It was dirty brown manure water. Vivienne Jeffers gets emotional when she recalls her home in Mogeely being flooded during Storm Babet in 2023. Picture: Neil Michael 'As the water rose above the electric points in the house, I realised 'Oh my God, we could all get electrocuted'.' Vivienne, who was only able to leave the house with her children through a downstairs window, starts to fight back tears as she recalled: 'I felt I couldn't protect my children. 'Nearly two years on, I am still stuck in fight or flight mode. 'I'll never forget the levels of the water, and then wading out with it up past my waist as I held onto my son after I got him out of the house and my husband took our daughter out.' Like the Motherways, they too are waiting for their flood barriers. So worried is she that her home will again be flooded, she has made a hole in the hedge in her back garden so she can get herself and her children out of the garden quickly. Vivienne Jeffers has made a hole in the hedge in her back garden so she can get herself and her children out of the garden quickly. Picture: Neil Michael The hole is also so she can get out into the field and check to see if there is any flooding in the area. Cork County Council was asked about concerns around the amount of time it is taking to install the flood barriers in general. The council was also asked if everyone who needs flood defences will have them in place before October under the Midleton and East Cork Individual Property Protection (IPP) Scheme and if not, why not? They confirmed there were 967 applications from property owners requesting inclusion on the scheme, with 725 deemed as 'valid'. Of these, a total of 2,062 flood gates were requested. 'Cork County Council is aware of the concerns around the timeline for the delivery of the Midleton and East Cork IPP scheme,' a spokesperson said. 'The delivery of this scheme is dependent on both the level of uptake of the scheme and the market response. Vivienne Jeffers: 'Nearly two years on, I am still stuck in fight or flight mode.' Picture: Neil Michael 'The majority of openings for which floodgates are being provided will require builders' work. Each property requires different size flood barriers to be procured from different suppliers. 'The ultimate scale of this IPP Scheme vastly exceeds that of any similar scheme delivered in Ireland or wider Europe. 'The market response for both supply of barriers and works contractors interested in undertaking the type of work required has been challenging to date.' They added: 'Cork County Council is continuing to explore every option to expedite the scheme to ensure that as many barriers as possible are delivered to properties in advance of this coming winter season.'
New Paper
30-06-2025
- General
- New Paper
'It was never smooth sailing': Dog welfare group ex-president reflects on 13 years at the helm
Dr Siew Tuck Wah can still remember what his bosses said when he became the president of Save Our Street Dogs Singapore (SOSD Singapore) in 2012. "Please don't associate the clinic with your charity work because the image is wrong," recalled the 46-year-old aesthetics doctor. SOSD has since become one of the most prominent animal welfare groups in Singapore. Dr Siew recently stepped down as SOSD president, citing a need for renewal, but remains a member of its medical committee. Looking back on his time helming the dog welfare organisation, he told The New Paper that people often think of stray dogs as "dirty, ugly, and disease-prone", and inferior to purebred, pedigree dogs. Today, Dr Siew is confident that mindsets have shifted. "The public's perception of stray dogs has changed tremendously," he said. Ironically, while Dr Siew has adopted many dogs since 2010, he did not grow up loving canines. "Growing up, there were no dogs in the neighbourhood. We were told to be very scared of dogs, you know, the dogs will bite you and all that." He moved out of his family home in 2006 and got his first dog Nugget, a Japanese Spitz. "That's when I started to get to know about dogs, how to take care of them and how to interact with them." Dr Siew with Nugget in 2007. PHOTO: NUGGET, CRAZY BLUE-EYED BOY/FACEBOOK As his love for dogs grew, so did his interest in the canine species. He began fostering stray dogs and got involved in animal activism in 2010. Back then, SOSD was just a small Facebook group started by a group of like-minded stray dog feeders, Dr Siew recalled. In a series of events that he attributed to fate, Dr Siew worked together with the organisation to save stray dogs in Punggol after a culling exercise in 2011. It was an epiphany for Dr Siew, as it gave him the motivation to step up and spearhead changes within SOSD. 'It was never smooth sailing' "I told the members we need to do this in a very structured way, but all the members said they didn't want to. So they said, if you want to, you can head it. And that's when I headed SOSD." He spent the next three years working towards an Institution of a Public Character (IPC) status for the organisation, as he believed it would help bring in more donations and increase SOSD's credibility. Most of his free time was spent at the dog shelter, handling administrative matters for the organisation. With decreasing donations and the expiry of the dog shelter lease, Dr Siew eventually quit his job to dedicate all his time to the organisation. He was also keen to work on the nationwide Trap-Neuter-Rehome/Release-Manage (TNRM) programme, which aims to sterilise free-roaming dogs after capture and subsequently rehome them. In 2015, Dr Siew spent the year having conversations with ministers and the Animal Veterinary Service (AVS) to strengthen collaboration and come up with solutions for stray dogs in Singapore. "I will go as far as to say that if I didn't dedicate full time to this, the TNRM project might not have taken off or taken off so early. The situation of the animal shelters might be different today." Dr Siew walking the dogs he adopted. PHOTO COURTESY OF DR SIEW Return to practice Over 13 years as SOSD president, Dr Siew gave up his full-time job as an aesthetics doctor in 2015, started Radium Medical Aesthetics in Singapore the following year, and another clinic in Malaysia in 2024. "I always knew I had to come back to work, right? I'm not rich," he quipped. "It's either you work for people or you start your own business. I realised I cannot work for people anymore because I needed that flexibility to be able to run both." He described his commitment to his clinic and SOSD as "very hand in hand". "All the SOSD meetings were held in Radium, we had all the fundraising campaigns cross cover, so there's a lot of synergy between them." Stepping down Dr Siew said his decision to step down as SOSD president was necessary as the organisation needed renewal to "thrive". Current president Ms May Ngu, a "passionate individual with the fire burning" who was SOSD's vice president, took over an organisation that has grown from 10 to 278 registered volunteers. "She's someone who has a vision of what she wants, and she takes care of both dogs and people," he said. Dr Siew hopes that SOSD's efforts will eventually be expanded into Malaysia, where its stray dogs are "not privileged" to have a supportive government. "They are poisoned, shot, and skinned alive, so they really need a concerted effort to sterilise and improve animal welfare." "This might be a good chance if I have the bandwidth, and if I have enough funds, because it's going to be a lot of money, then I can start helping dogs there," he added. "I don't think I'll ever stop," he said with a laugh. "I hope that I can continue to be healthy so that I can get things moving and bring positive change."
