BYCRONANSCANLON

SENIOR council officials were left red-faced following another devastating flood in Raphoe which caused many thousands of euro worth of damage to homes and businesses.

A huge amount of damage was caused when a flash flood hit shortly after 2pm.

The anger of local people has been directed at senior council engineers who, they claim, were warned for years about inadequate storm drainage in the area.

Locals claim this is the seventh time in 30 years there has been flooding in the Raphoe area with the last such incident happening as recently as September. A drain which was blocked by the unauthorised demolition of a nearby house is also adding to the problem in William Street, locals claim.

Numerous calls to the council by this paper and local councillor, Tony McDaid, were not returned and townspeople have also been left in the dark.

One local businessman is adamant that he is not going to pay his rates to the council until the problem is rectified.

"I have still heard nothing from the council and I am not relying on them either," said Mr Seamus Connolly who owns Castle Cycles and the Castle Cafe on William Street.

He says insurance companies will not cover them for flood damage because they are situated in a high risk area.

"It was the water that came in off William Street that did the damage as well as a blocked drain at the site of Dr Quinn's old house. I am not going to pay my rates until this is sorted. I will send the council a cheque post dated for two years so it can only be cashed when I say so. However, if they rectify the problem I will change the date on the cheque".

Mr Connolly pays the council around 2,000 euro per year in rates, however, the damage caused to his two businesses is expected to exceed that figure.

"At the end of the day I am a small business man and I do my own thing, I cannot sit around waiting on the council, politicians or the Government to do anything for me. As soon as the water hit the floor we were removing the tiles and were finished by 10pm on Tuesday night. If it were not for the help of my customers and members of the Four Masters Cycling Club I would still not be open," he concluded.

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