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It's too early to say that normality has returned to Newry city centre, it will take many months for some businesses with some needing to relocate temporaily. With the subsidance of flood waters business owners have been able to return to their premises today and the full cost of the catastrophe is plain to see.
The flood waters have left the city centre, replaced with mud and a stench of sewage and oil. The Sugar Island area, Canal Quay, Sugarhouse Quay and Basin Walk are now dried up but Sugar Island remains closed to enable the clean up. All day business owners and staff have been working away to try and clear up their premises. Council and Department for Infrastructure staff are on the ground and Eamonn Connolly from Newry BID has never been off the street, engaging the BID clean up team to help clean the area with power hosing etc. Cllr Valerie Harte, Council Chairperson was also helping out on a practical level at premises.
Talking to people at the coal face so to speak, two things were notable. Firstly the outpouring of support and assistance from near and far, and secondly the cost of the tragedy with the need for financial assistance extremely urgent. Hugh Boyle from the Cue Club on Basin Walk reckoned it would cost in excess of half a million pounds to restore his premises alone.
In Sugar Island McCartan's staff were salvaging what they could with cost of ruined stock easily running into hundreds of thousands. Just a few weeks ago they had carried out extensive renovations with new flooring and furnishings and now that's all been completely destroyed. Friar Tucks were also in the thick of their long clean up with much machinery damaged.
The interior of Gordons Chemist looks like an earthquake hit it with stock completely ruined. Staff from ICATU also spent the day clearing out the mud and flood water with much of their electric catering equipment totally destroyed. Post Office staff were also doing the same and counting the cost of ruined equipment.
Clutching to the positive Brendan Downey, owner of Friar Tucks in Sugar Island said "I've had message from Canada, Australia, America and New Zealand saying they are sorry for our trouble. The amount of phone calls and text messages and people calling with me to say 'I'm available and I will work' - professional people, a doctor, a professor/ lecturer looking to come down and help clean my shop. It's just unbelievable. We are totally overwhelmed.
"To tell you the truth, it has kept me going psychologically for the last couple of days. The annoyance of it has nearly subsided with the offers of help. Three builders rang me on Monday wanting to come down. A builder supplier said 'Brendan, anything you need, no payment for 12 months'.
The council this morning have been outstanding. The people of Newry have been so good. It's the best town in the north."
Some businesses have been less affected than others, although they all have been seriously disrupted. Paul Thompson's garage on Basin Walk spent today cleaning alloys and other items but they had a lot less damage than others. They had been fortunate to be able to remove several vehicles and place things higher up on Monday night before the floods came in fully.
At the other extreme Hugh Boyle from the Cue Club said "It will take £500k to get us back. We need support. No insurance company will give us insurance because of us being so close to this river and canal. Something catastrophic has happened here."
Boyle queried the operation of the Victoria Lock gates. In reply to a question on Tuesday from Newry.ie a spokesperson said “Newry, Mourne and Down District Council is coordinating the operation of the sluice gates at Victoria Lock in line with Rivers Agency advice and have been doing so throughout Monday night and will continue to do so throughout this emergency situation. The sluice gates are located within the lock infrastructure and are operated independently of the actual Lock gates.”
He claims the Rivers Agency were putting sandbags out whenever the canal had already overflowed. Newry.ie has asked the department for comment.
Boyle continues "If we had a bit of notice, I would have had all my equipment moved to higher ground. I could have saved hundreds of thousands. We had no time, 7 o clock and by 10 o clock it was flooded.
There's a serious amount of businesses that need help including ourselves. Businesses need to get together and see what we can do and see who is there to help us get through this."
Hugh says the Cue Club has never been flooded like this before. "Sometimes the canal would get high, a bit of water would spill in but never did it breach the building. That also makes me think what has happened here. Something catastrophic has happened that hasn't happened in years gone by. We've had these quantities of rain in the past but you never had this. Something has went wrong. That canal should be dredged. How much more water would that have held.
"We are in a city that has two waterways running through it. Surely they have to be a priority to maintain or this is going to happen again. Where do I go from here, fix this place up, spend half a million and next thing this could happen in 12 months time."
The clean up continues.
