Flood survey problems in Ballinasloe

Academic staff from NUI Maynooth experienced problems recently trying to survey the public in Ballinasloe on the devastating flooding of last November, as many people are still not back in their homes or had moved back in just days prior to the door-to-door questionnaire being carried out. The study, a joint effort by National University of Ireland Maynooth and the University of East Anglia aims to gauge the response and responsibility of agencies, local and national to the record flooding in Ballinasloe last year, which left scores of homeowners and businesses counting the cost of devastating water damage in their houses and buildings. Door-to-door surveys were carried out in the last two weeks from people in the community in Ballinasloe who were not flooded and those who experienced flooding of their homes and businesses. Surveys were also undertaken in Claregalway and Athenry and the Irish findings will be compared with the experiences of flood victims in Cumbria in the UK in the academic report expected to be published early next year. "The biggest problem we came up against was then a lot of people were not back in their homes or just moving back into their houses nearly a year after the flooding," Dr Cormac Murphy commented this week. "We couldn't get over the amount of people who were only just in their houses. In the UK, insurance companies have to make a decision on claims in one month but the trend here from the surveys done is delays in processing insurance claims. A lot of people simply didn't know how to deal with the insurance companies either" Dr Murphy remarked on the trends already evident in surveys carried out. The ten-page questionnaire deals with the two main areas, response from agencies and the community to the record November flooding, and responsibility for the problem, who the public perceive is legally required to tackle the effects and prevent it from happening again. "The first section deals with responsibility, who do people think is responsible for flooding if it happens again and it also looks at how the agencies got the information about flooding out to them," Dr Murphy said. "The second part looked at fairness at how it was possible for the public to influence decisions in terms of Flood Alleviation Committees. What people seem to have found most helpful was the work the local community did themselves trying to lobby agencies. What will be most interesting is who people see as responsible for flooding," he added. Surveys will now be carried in Cumbria on September 9 next, who also experienced flooding last year and the data collected will be compared with the Irish experience. Afterwards, the analysis will form part of the official report, expected to complete early next year. It will be presented to the Department of Environment for consideration.