Circular Letter MEM 01-09
To:
All County Managers
30th November 2009
Assessment reports on severe flooding
Dear Manager,
The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr. John
Gormley, T.D., wishes to thank you and your staff for the work carried out in relation
to the flooding, which has occurred. The Minister noted the good inter agency
response and also the community participation during a difficult time. The Minister
asks for a report from local authorities which were affected by the flooding on their
experiences in relation to this flooding, e.g. what resources were employed, whether
the situation could have been handled differently and whether lessons can be learned
for future situations. An urgent assessment of the scale of the floods and the ensuing
damage and dislocation should also be provided and should include some or all of the
following information and any additional information you consider relevant:
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Chronology of events
 Date time and duration of the inundation?
 amount of advance warning prior to activating your response, and
 how you were warned?
Was it necessary to activate your Major Emergency Plan or sub-Plan for dealing
with flood emergencies?
If so, which Plan and when?
What services were involved?
What was the contribution of each of the services involved?
Give details about their co-ordination.
Was there a Regional level response
What were the co-ordination arrangements
What were the communication channels prior to and after the flooding
Details of all road closures including the duration and the extent of the flooding
 Road and street names if available
Details of the locations, number and type of properties flooded and depth of
inundation if available (less than or greater than 300mm?):
 residential ( private and local authority)
 commercial
 other, please specify
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The locations and number of residential properties evacuated
The number of people evacuated from residential properties
Alternative accommodation provided:
 by the local authority
 provided otherwise e.g. relatives
The number of people still evacuated and estimated duration of evacuation
Was it necessary to evacuate vulnerable people such as elderly, disabled etc.
Waterworks affected and the action taken
Sewerage systems affected and the action taken
Was a 24 hour emergency contact number provided
How was the number publicised
Was there a known previous history of flooding in all areas that flooded?
Suggestions to how your flood response might be improved in the future.
General description of the rain storm which caused the flood event
Remedial works required (please give details including specific costs).
In order to co-ordinate responses as soon as possible, reports should be e-mailed to
John Feerick, John_Feerick@environ.ie, in the Fire Services and Emergency Planning
Section, by Friday, 18th December 2009. Please note that the Department will share
the information received in response to this circular with the Office of Public Works
which has the lead agency role in relation to devising and implementing measures to
deal with flooding in Ireland and other relevant Government Departments.
The OPW would appreciate if your authority could complete a Flood Event Report
Form to assist that Office in enhancing their websites and request, to improve
communication and/or clarification of any matter in relation the Report Form and
flooding in general, if you could nominate an official as a primary contact point in
relation to flooding - see Annex to this circular letter.
It is appreciated that the compilation of the details sought may take sometime and in
the interim a shorter summary report would be useful especially details on urgent
remedial works- see final indent above.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Greene
Principal Officer
Annex to circular letter MEM 01-09
Office of Public Works- Flooding Information
The OPW, to assist that Office in enhancing their flood information websites
( www.flooding.ie and www.floodmaps.ie ) requests that your authority would
complete the “Flood Event Report Form” ((preferably in the Excel version of the
form) which is available from the OPW website under “ Flood Risk Management”
section and under recent publications http://www.opw.ie/en/FloodRiskManagement.
A brochure explaining the purpose of the data and guidance on completion of the
form is also available from the OPW website. The form is focused on information of
the flood event and the damage caused.
As requested on the Form, it would be helpful if the local authority could provide
maps or flood extents in GIS or AutoCAD(dxf) formats and if a Form could be
completed for each town or individual areas affected rather than one form for the
whole county.
The OPW has also requested that the local authority, to facilitate communication and
clarity on flood matters, would nominate an official/representative (and a deputy) in
respect to matters relating to flooding. The representative (or deputy) will be
requested to represent the authority on the regional Steering Groups that are being
established for the implementation of the EU “Floods” Directive, which will meet on
a six month basis. The name(s) could be forwarded to the person named in the circular
and the Department will forward same to OPW or sent direct to OPW.
The contact person in OPW is Mark Adamson, telephone 01 6476734, fax
01 6761714 or email mark.adamson@opw.ie .