Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore has rallied to defend Met Éireann after Storm Chandra, describing as “disgraceful” the criticism of it by a Government minister.
“After such dire consequences, I expected Minister for Housing James Browne to address the situation with utmost urgency and seriousness, yet he took to South East Radio yesterday morning and accused Met Éireann of withholding flood warning information,”she said.
“This was an extraordinary statement to make and a disgraceful attempt to evade responsibility,”she said.
“A full year on since Storm Éowyn, households have still not received the promised advisory and information booklets on what to do when a storm hits - this week has been a stark reminder of how unresponsive this government is,”she said.
“The minister rolled out this conspiracy to turn attention away from his government’s failure to invest and implement effective measures in areas that have long been identified as vulnerable to flooding,”she said.
“This lack of leadership has defined the government’s approach to flood preparedness, putting it on the back burner at every given opportunity until it’s too late,”she added.
Some 1,200 homes and businesses remained without power on Thursday after Storm Chandra brought flooding and high winds to parts of Dublin, Wexford and Wicklow on Tuesday.
Dr Fiachra O'Loughlin
Dr Iris Möller, Professor of Geography and Trinity Coastal Research Group Lead, Trinity College Dublin, said that "Storm Chandra's impacts are the result of a complex system in which the atmosphere, land, and ocean connect in ways that challenge us”.
“We know enough to be able to anticipate these impacts: we have river gauging stations, coastal buoys, and good weather forecasting,”she said..
"Where we fail is in putting that knowledge and data together for our benefit. For this we need a multi-agency approach,”Dr Möller said.
“We need the meteorologists working seamlessly with river and coastal experts. We need systematic environmental observations and a better, integrated analysis of them to deliver location-specific targeted warning systems. We have the science and the technical ability to do this - but we need structural change to harness it,”she said.
"It is crystal clear that building on floodplains and on mobile coastal fringes of sand dunes, marshes, and beaches, has put people and infrastructure at unnecessary risk,”she said.
“ It is time that we appreciate that nature itself, if left to function in its own way, can do the job for us: reduce wave energy through wide, spacious beaches, dunes, and wetlands and soak up rainwater, through grasslands and forests,”she said.
“ What we now need urgently are the mechanisms to restore nature in places where we have destroyed it - we have the science but we need to support those who will need to make it happen. Strong political leadership, governance, and support for affected communities and their adaptation is what is needed,” Dr Möller concluded.
Dr Fiachra O'Loughlin, School of Civil Engineering, University College Dublin, noted that Phoenix Park experienced over 35 mm of rainfall and Dublin Airport experienced near 30 mm on January 27th.
“This is an extremely large amount to fall in such a short period of time and most fell in the first half of the day. To put this into perspective, this is over 50% of the long term average rainfall that is expected to fall at either station,”he said.
“In addition, the past few months have been wetter than normal so the ground is completely saturated. Therefore there was little to no storage available, resulting in a number of rivers bursting their banks,”he said.
"Could we have been better prepared, were our flood defence sufficient? These are complex questions to answer. In Ireland, we are aware of the flood risk and there are a number of flood defence schemes being implemented across the country,”he said.
“ However, the time taken to get approval and for the scheme to be built often is not fast enough to prevent these kinds of disasters. For example along the Dodder, phase two of a flood defence scheme was completed in 2023, up to Smurfit weirs near Clonskeagh but future phases are still at the design phase. This however, is of little benefit to those upstream who experienced flooding during Storm Chandra,”he said.
"However, it is important to note that it is impossible to reduce the risk of flooding to zero. Even if all communities were protected by flood defence schemes, these are designed for specific risk levels, often a one in a 100-year flood or an event that has a 1% chance of occuring in any given year. Larger events are possible and do occur,”he said.
