Where does the flood water come from

thomasm

Curious as to where the flood waters originate from.

The Quay yesterday was flooded by Plaza, with the flood barrier all along the Quay was this a build up of rainwater or did it start backing up through drains. If it is the drains why is there no device that prevents the water coming back up.

Polberry: Rain water or the river overflowing? Is it possible the flood barrier on the Waterside has moved the problem up stream ??

The Manor, I don't recall flooding here before where did this come from.

Hoffmans

Saw water gushing up drains in john street at full tide flooding street around the front lounge ,
River in Waterside looks narrower now since the works have been done surely it would have been smarter to widen the area to take the larger volumes of water at full spring tide..it sure looks like the problem has been moved up to poleberry...

kaef

It started in 18th cntury:

"Historically, the rough area between the quays, the People's Park, Catherine St. and The Mall was marshland, which gave way to what was known as The Pill. The Pill was a pool of water, fed by John's River. It was drained, along with the surrounding marshland, in the late 18th century by the Wide Streets Commission, in order to build the Mall, and to expand the city eastwards. From this point on, the river had well defined banks all the way to the Suir."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John's_River

wellboytoo

The flood water scheme is still six months from completion and is still open at Poleberry, so I would imagine the exceptional tide of yesterday overflowed into that area particularly.
There are also a lot of drains that have not been "duckbilled" yet so you would have back up from these as well.

thomasm

wellboytoo wrote: »

The flood water scheme is still six months from completion and is still open at Poleberry, so I would imagine the exceptional tide of yesterday overflowed into that area particularly.
There are also a lot of drains that have not been "duckbilled" yet so you would have back up from these as well.

''Duckbilled'' I knew there had to be an expression for it and that's very apt

mike65

Johns River needs a flood barrier at its mouth. (and the estuary needs a flood barrier at Ballyhack )

aloyisious

Re Cork, I've been wondering if the next "great or national" plan could be the construction of a separate run-off for the excess water from the ESB dam above Cork, so's in emergency (or even normal) times there would be an acceptable down-river flow of water through the city?

Isn't it about time that Cork get's a proper tidal-flow system built for the Lee and other water sources through that (our 2nd) city?

Just listening to RTE News that the City Co is advising people to stay out of the city centre from about 8PM onwards for their own safety. What are the locals to do, if they live in ground level homes, in the affected flood-zones?

Silverado

The spring tides at present are exceptionally high. The Saturday and Sunday high water was 4.6 metres and 4.5 metres. This is unusually high since our normal spring tide would be about 4.0/4.1 metres. Obviously this represents around a half metre more than we have constructed our city quays and tidal barriers to expect so it just came over the top.

Nothing we can do easily will solve this problem other than just raising the level of our properties. Improved tidal barriers would help though.

aloyisious

I had been thinking about whether dredging the river might help, or whether that would just weaken the quayside wall foundations?

kaef

Is it possible the flood barrier on the Waterside has moved the problem up stream

Of course, because barriers are not finished in the Poleberry area yet.

mike65

Dredging would be of no help at all with regard to tidal flooding - the volume of water would be far greater than the extra "space" created by removing material.

oshea01

there has been a lot of building done in ireland over the last 15 years, all natural drainage is gone, ie land acts as sponge ,take it away and put a lot of concrete in its place, with man made drainage, you have a lot of fast water heading for the rivers up stream, that and high tides,

mike65

oshea01 wrote: »

there has been a lot of building done in ireland over the last 15 years, all natural drainage is gone, ie land acts as sponge ,take it away and put a lot of concrete in its place, with man made drainage, you have a lot of fast water heading for the rivers up stream, that and high tides,

Indeed - Millers Marsh is named so for a reason, Kingsmeadow likewise, both completely built over.

Jamie2k9

mike65 wrote: »

Dredging would be of no help at all with regard to tidal flooding - the volume of water would be far greater than the extra "space" created by removing material.

While it may not have real benefit I think it should be done regardless of floods as it does create some space which may not be of benefit of recent storms but in general would be.

wellboytoo

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

While it may not have real benefit I think it should be done regardless of floods as it does create some space which may not be of benefit of recent storms but in general would be.

It doesn't I'm afraid it's only advantage would possibly be that it would allow the flood away sooner after high tide.
Water finds it's own level, a very old saying but still true!

dzilla

mike65 wrote: »

Indeed - Millers Marsh is named so for a reason, Kingsmeadow likewise, both completely built over.

Aswell as the superquinn area. Also is the quay river being dredged against silting and up river towards fidown since the ships have stopped going up there?

JPA

Good chance of more flooding tonight, be warned!

danjo-xx

Instead of giving us water meters they should be providing us with these.

deise08

Any reports on how bad it is there tonight? God the poor people down there

danjo-xx

deise08 wrote: »

Any reports on how bad it is there tonight? God the poor people down there

SE Waterford/Wexford not due to get it bad till after midnight.

Aestivalis

From the weather forum. Dont know original source.

Poleberry tonight.

Professey Chin

YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

mooseknunkle

The floods have there own facebook page now :pac:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Waterford-Floods/204127423119426

Gardner

well **** me, there is some experts here on drainage and flood relief.

id say engineering professionals are ****ing themselves in their jobs......

wellboytoo

Gardner wrote: »

well **** me, there is some experts here on drainage and flood relief.

id say engineering professionals are ****ing themselves in their jobs......

I'd say the cynics of the world are clambering for your services....

thomasm

Gardner wrote: »

well **** me, there is some experts here on drainage and flood relief.

id say engineering professionals are ****ing themselves in their jobs......

So what's your take on where it comes from then

ROCKMAN

Any reports on Poleberry ,did all the effort pay off/work ?

wellboytoo

ROCKMAN wrote: »

Any reports on Poleberry ,did all the effort pay off/work ?

Looks like the sandbags did the job and kept the tide back,

AdMMM

Aestivalis wrote: »

From the weather forum. Dont know original source.

Poleberry tonight.

That image made the front page of the Indo today

dzilla

Gardner wrote: »

well **** me, there is some experts here on drainage and flood relief.

id say engineering professionals are ****ing themselves in their jobs......

The same engineers who didn't have the foresight to see this happening all these years?

spankmemunkey

Suppose theres lots of reasons.

Historically as been pointed out it's prone to flooding.

All flood planes have been built on in boom time.

Never once saw drains or shores been cleaned out in the city by the council and we should start a thread on the amount of drains around the city that are full to the brim with muck rendering them useless. The six cross roads for example all shores have grass growing out of them. Ok people may argue but whats the point in installing them and the costs involved in installing them if your not going to service them? the drains should all have sieves in the shores that are cleaned out every 3-4 weeks.

danjo-xx

spankmemunkey wrote: »

Never once saw drains or shores been cleaned out in the city by the council and we should start a thread on the amount of drains around the city that are full to the brim with muck rendering them useless. The six cross roads for example all shores have grass growing out of them. Ok people may argue but whats the point in installing them and the costs involved in installing them if your not going to service them? the drains should all have sieves in the shores that are cleaned out every 3-4 weeks.

Regular maintenance of drains seems to be a thing of the past for years now..if we cant get the basic's right then the whole house comes tumbling down eventually.

Life seems to be only about Fire Brigade options nowadays, like were all watching a disaster movie, like Towering Inferno, Airport, Earthquake etc until it comes to a cinema near you

spankmemunkey

danjo-xx wrote: »

Regular maintenance of drains seems to be a thing of the past for years now..if we cant get the basic's right then the whole house comes tumbling down eventually.

Life seems to be only about Fire Brigade options nowadays, like were all watching a disaster movie, like Towering Inferno, Airport, Earthquake etc until it comes to a cinema near you

Well said. It seems the powers that be are reactive and not proactive in their approach to work. clean out the shores properly put in buckets with holes in the bottom to act like a sieve and that will catch dirt to prevent blockage the buckets are emptied every 2 or 3 weeks. yes it will be more man power and more money but its cheaper than the money they are looking at for repairs. Im not saying that its the complete solution but its a start. If you want to stop flooding you have to have properly functioning drains.

Finnbar01

I wouldn't say it is anyone thing but a combination of several things.

1. Excessive rain.
2. Silting up of rivers
3. Destruction of water catchment areas.
4. Poor construction planning.
5. Building too close to the rivers and on or near flood plains.
6. One off housing.