Wexford County Council has said it is working to establish the cause of flooding that has damaged a number of houses in Rosslare.
14 properties in The Haven estate were flooded following heavy rain at the weekend.
The ground floors in some of the impacted houses were covered by up to 4ft of water, which is slowly receding.
A dinghy had to be used to evacuate some residents, while others were rescued by the fire service.
Carrie Stafford's sister Kate, who lives in the estate, was among those who were impacted.
She said her sister could see "the flood rising outside, so she had to be evacuated by the fire brigade because she is on crutches, she had foot surgery two weeks."
"They got her out and then the water started to come in, so there is about 8 inches of water inside her house now."
Pumps have been deployed, draining around 16,000 gallons of water an hour out to the sea at Rosslare Strand.
The Director of Services at Wexford County Council said a sluice gate "that maybe wasn't fully opened before" has been fully opened as part of the efforts to remove the water, which usually clears from the area through a mixture of drains and canals near the houses.
Eamon Hore said the sluice gate "was fully working two weeks ago."
"I think with the recent storms that we've had, perhaps an awful lot of debris has gone down and it interfered with the sluice gates, so maybe, maybe not, but it's something that we definitely need to keep an eye on in the future."
He said "we're pumping maybe 16,000 gallons an hour, but there's 1000s of acres of floodwater at the far side of the wall" around the back of the estate.
Mr Nore, who said the council are on "high alert" ahead of Storm Ciaran, said he believes there could be a role for flood defence measures near the estate in the future.
He said a flood protection scheme and a coastal erosion scheme are planned for the Rosslare area but he said "it hadn't included these houses, possibly because these houses never flooded before."
"So, yeah, there is maybe a role to look at this now to see how these could be protected and that could very well be automated sluice gates."
Local Coast Guard volunteer Alan Duggan was involved in efforts to help people get to dry land in the Haven estate.
He said the flooding started on Saturday afternoon and by yesterday there was 3ft of water in parts of the estate.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said helped a family of four and a 70-year-old man to get out of their homes using a dinghy.
Mr Duggan said the flooding has not receded and expects it may be a few days before it clears.
He said there are 300 to 400 acres of flooded land behind the estate, with water coming off the land causing problems.
Having lived in the area for years previously, Mr Duggan said he does not remember it flooding like that.
He recalled when he was younger the Wexford canal system was cleaned and maintained regularly but drains are now blocked up and water cannot flow through.
He added that those who are not in their holiday homes currently do not know what they will face when they get down.
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