Cork floods, 2009, UCC to sue ESB.

[Diawlbach]

What about the 'professional' planners who gave permission for all the buildings in question?
Did the word 'DYKE' in the planning application for the Mardyke ring any alarm bells, or did they think it was an area where Mar(ie) the lesbian 'dyke' lived?

That would be the dyke raised up above the levels of the Lee on which all those building were built the best part of a century ago? The Mardyke's pretty much unchanged for over thirty years. The only real new buildings there have been the UCC Sports complex, an extension to Fitzgerald's Park and the new Pres (over 25 years ago).

In over 35 years, it's the first flood in Cork I can remember from that angle. Floods usually happen with the combination of a spring tide, heavy rain and a very strong south-easterly backing the water up through Lough Mahon. It floods from Morrison's Island and the Mall first. Flooding that end of the City is almost unheard of, and it really started from the wall going at Grenville Place on the North Channel - not the South, on which UCC (bar the Mardyke Sportsground) stands.

[Diawlbach]

The Lee field has a chequered record of flooding as it goes back at the start of 21st century. UCC have failed to take the history of that field into account. As of last year,they are suing another company -Arup & Co, who built it, which had flooded the valuable antiques eventually .

Given the expertise that UCC have re local histories as i can't believe that they have failed enormously to take into account, local factors. From my late grandfather's stories, that field flooded from time to time from small to big ones. It's bit foolhardy that UCC are taking ESB and Arup & Co to court.

ESB gave sufficient warning prior to this as a week before that happened... the dam held some bit of water to allow the search of a missing man to continue before they released it. What i call it a force of nature leashed rare time in 21st century.

The Lee Fields are about 1.5 km upstream of UCC, before the river splits into North and South Channels. They flood all the time, and are, thankfully, a proper flood plain even still.

If you mean the field down below the main block of the college, on the north bank of the South Channel, then it does have problems on occasion. But the Glucksman is on the south bank. I do agree that I doubt putting in a car park on part of that field helped.

[Disabled student]

The Lee Fields are about 1.5 km upstream of UCC, before the river splits into North and South Channels. They flood all the time, and are, thankfully, a proper flood plain even still.

If you mean the field down below the main block of the college, on the north bank of the South Channel, then it does have problems on occasion. But the Glucksman is on the south bank. I do agree that I doubt putting in a car park on part of that field helped.

Inniscarra Dam flush water downstream some 10km before it reaches the city. It's a long downstream all the way down to the Lee field. It would generate lot of force/currents.

I am not quite familar with North Channel and South Channel that you mentioned. North channel & South Channel where does it go??

Heard from an engineer, who said that new building has been raised by a couple of inches after taking into account the history of Lee field. He didn't say re new car park raised so i think the new building housed for Dept of Comp sci was the only building raised when in construction.

I was surprised that Glucksman building went all the way down but not as close to the river bank. I couldn't understand that they designed & placed the storage room where the antiques or something of of historical interest/value close to where the river bank is. It should be stored up in the attic, not at the bottom.

It was Arup & Co, who raised the new building and now they found themselves sued by UCC last year. That was the talk around Mardyke residents.

[Diawlbach]

Inniscarra Dam flush water downstream some 10km before it reaches the city. It's a long downstream all the way down to the Lee field. It would generate lot of force/currents.

I am not quite familar with North Channel and South Channel that you mentioned. North channel & South Channel where does it go??

Heard from an engineer, who said that new building has been raised by a couple of inches after taking into account the history of Lee field. He didn't say re new car park raised so i think the new building housed for Dept of Comp sci was the only building raised when in construction.

I was surprised that Glucksman building went all the way down but not as close to the river bank. I couldn't understand that they designed & placed the storage room where the antiques or something of of historical interest/value close to where the river bank is. It should be stored up in the attic, not at the bottom.

It was Arup & Co, who raised the new building and now they found themselves sued by UCC last year. That was the talk around Mardyke residents.

The Lee splits into the North and South channels just upstream of the Mardyke grounds - opposite the County Hall, and the unfortunate Kingsley. They meet again at the end of the island, and go on down past Blackrock and Lough Mahon.

[Disabled student]

The Lee splits into the North and South channels just upstream of the Mardyke grounds - opposite the County Hall, and the unfortunate Kingsley. They meet again at the end of the island, and go on down past Blackrock and Lough Mahon.

Thanks Diawbach, it made sense now.

[locke]

I heard the rumour about the search for a body (at the time I was told he was a relative of someone who worked at the dam) but I don’t know whether it is true or not. If it is in fact true, whether it would be regarded by a court as justifiable grounds to deviate from protocol for managing the dam during an extreme weather event I don’t know. Without being familiar with any specifics regarding the search for the body it’s not too easy to comment but unless there are some significant details which are not in the public domain my gut feeling would be that it would probably not be seen as a justifiable mitigating factor by a court.

I don't think they were holding back during the extreme weather event. The young man in question went missing about in the week beforehand. The story is that they had kept the flow low on the days after he went missing, meaning that the lake behind the dam at Inniscara was full when the extreme event started and there was no possibility of absorbing the rainfall.

It was actually noted the next day in the personal blog of the editor of the Cork Indo

deshocks: Floods

But somehow it seems it's not to be spoken of now.

I've never heard about the connection to the ESB, but it's not impossible. The guy who went missing was from the Ballyvourney/Ballymakeera area, which isn't a million miles from the Carrigadrohid dam.

[jdwex]

Surely its an insurance company v ESBs insurance company

The ESB is self-insured

[Podolski1.5]

I think it is a bit simplistic of UCC to be suing the ESB for this. There were other factors involved:

1. The planners who allowed significant building on known flood plains and partially diverted the course of the Shournagh, Bride and Curraheen rivers
2. UCC themselves, who built on a flood plain
3. Cork City Council and those responsible for damaging the quay wall adjacent to Batchelors Quay which was hit by a heavy digger a few days earlier and the collapse of which caused thousands of tonnes of water to pour into the adjoining low-lying streets.
4. All of the relevant bodies which drew up a report on the flooding potential of the River Lee some years earlier and refused to heed its warnings

[cricket]

Did the Kingsley ever reopen ? Could never understand how anybody was allowed build anything there.