Rising flood waters have led to several properties in Cork city centre being flooded on Tuesday morning with business owners having to bail out waters after the River Lee burst its banks.
Several property owners on Winthrop Street between Oliver Plunkett Street and Patrick Street were flooded this morning as water from the South Channel of the Lee burst its banks and flowed across the South Mall.
Waters streamed through Pembroke St and adjacent streets like Marlboro St, Cook St and Princes St on to Oliver Plunkett St and from there it flowed on to Winthrop St.
Business owners in Cork city centre are nervously waiting for flood waters to pass this morning as high tides caused the south channel of the River Lee to burst its banks and sent water shooting down into low-lying areas.
Cork City Council had advised motorists to avoid the city centre this morning until at least 10am but gardaí have been forced to close off a number of low-lying streets as flood waters began to make some streets impassable.
Critically the high tides flooded the South Mall and spilled over the central median in the street and began flowing down sides streets such as Pembroke St, Cook St, Marlboro St and Princes St into Oliver Plunkett St.
Although the flood waters were as deep as a foot on Pembroke St resulting in flood waters surrounding the GPO on Oliver Plunkett St, businesses appeared to have avoided damage due to a combination of high steps and sand bags.
Cork City Council Director of Services David Joyce said business owners on the low-lying city centre street had heeded council warnings about the flooding and they had sandbagged their doors to stop waters entering their properties.
“It’s not as bad as we thought it would be two hours ago but there’s still a huge amount of water coming in off the south channel – the South Mall is impassable but so far no properties appear to have been damaged,” he said.
However up to 30 car owners may be counting the cost this morning after leaving their cars parked on Fr Mathew Quay, Morrison’s Island and the South Mall where flood waters rose well over their door sills and entered the cars.
Further upstream on the south channel, the Lee also overspilled its banks at Wandesford Quay flooding Sharman Crawford Street and Crosses Green but the council had delivered sandbags to the residents in these areas.
It appears this morning that most of the houses in both Sharman Crawford and Crosses Green escaped flooding this morning having also escaped last night as high tide sent waters brimming their sand bagged doorsteps.
Across the city centre, the north channel of the River Lee spilled out through openings in the quay walls at Lavitts Quay flooding the roadway but business owners were saved from flooding by having high steps into their properties.
According to Mr Joyce, all the flooding in the South Mall and Oliver Plunkett St and the streets linking the two came through Morrison’s Island this morning and would be addressed by the planned Lower Lee Flood Relief Scheme.
He said the €150 OPW Lower Lee Flood Relief and Management Scheme drawn up in the wake of 2009 flood which inundated much of the city centre included an element to specifically address tidal flooding from Morrison’s Island.
However, the OPW scheme has met with opposition from a campaign group, Save Cork City which claims the OPW plan is too dependent on building walls, which will limit access to the river and will fail to protect the city from flooding.
The group has mounted a number of legal challenges to Cork City Council’s €6 million Morrison’s Island Public Realm Project, which is incorporated in the OPW scheme to protect the area from tidal flooding from the south channel of the Lee.
Save Cork City mounted a legal challenge in 2019 to the Morrison’s Island Public Realm Project which forced the city council to submit a new planning application to An Bord Pleanála which granted planning for the project in June.
Save Cork City has appealed to the High Court for leave to seek a judicial review of the An Bord Pleanála decision with the High Court due to rule on November 3rd on whether or not the group can proceed with the challenge.
Last month, Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Patrick O Donovan visited Cork and said while he respected people’s right to object, the situation on Leeside was becoming too serious and too urgent.
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