A grandmother has told of the "petrifying" experience when she and her family, including her three-week-old grandson, were rescued as water started entering the ground floor of their Co Wexford home.
Elayne Grant told how last night, her three-week-old grandson was upset and she went to her daughter and son-in-law's house along Enniscorthy Quay to help out.
At 1.30am, the gardaí called, asking her to remove her car from outside the building.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Ms Grant said: "I parked it a good bit away, came back and we settled down. The baby woke then at 4.40am, 5am for a bottle and I looked outside the window and we were absolutely, completely trapped in."
"We didn’t even know it was going to happen," she added.
She said they were on the first-floor level, but the water was coming in at the ground-floor level, where all the electrics were.
She described it as "petrifying" for the child’s parents as the water levels "kept rising and rising and rising".
The family received a call from Slaney Rescue, saying they were going to send a boat over to rescue them from the house.
"So, we gathered everything, they said they would send an empty boat, so we could bring a lot of things for the baby," she said, adding that the baby was brought in his car chair on the boat.
Ms Grant said her grandson slept the whole way through the experience.
"He was okay but it was his mam and dad. It was just petrifying. The two guys with Slaney Rescue the current was going against them. It was scary," she said.
Ms Grant said she remembered flooding in the town in 2000 being equally as bad.
She said one of the cars that the family moved last night, worth €20,000, "isn’t going to make it".
"It just needs to be highlighted, anything could have happened in that river… lives could have been lost in that river today," she said.
"It is ridiculous how the Government haven’t done anything about this. It’s crazy."
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Locals in Enniscorthy have renewed their calls for the immediate introduction of a long-awaited flood prevention scheme following Storm Chandra.
The town was one of a number of areas in the south east of the country to be hit by heavy flooding.
A number of homes had to be evacuated and businesses were forced to closed.
A Status Yellow rain warning was in effect for the county until 11pm.
When the River Slaney burst its banks in the early hours of this morning, parts of Enniscorthy town centre were severely flooded.
Up to 30 homes and at least 20 businesses were left under several feet of water. Several schools in the county also closed.
The conditions also played havoc with public transport with Iarnród Éireann suspending its Rosslare line services due to flooding on the line in Enniscorthy.
Many people in parts of the southeast have called for more permanent solutions to be put in place to prevent their homes and businesses flooding again in the future.
Fine Gael Senator Cathal Byrne, who is based in Enniscorthy, said that the River Slaney started to burst its banks at about 4am which resulted in devastating floods.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, he said that this was yet another flooding event, and that there has been far too many in the last 26 years with 350 properties in the affected area.
He said that it is having a massive impact, with businesses and schools closed and residents on the Island Road having their homes flooded.
He said that the Enniscorthy Flood Scheme has not been delivered and needs to be looked at seriously.
He added that €55 million was allocated for the scheme in 2014 but that it has not been possible to get planning permission.
"It's not good enough and residents are deeply frustrated. Every time it starts to rain, they get worried," Mr Byrne explained.
Flood defence scheme needed in Enniscorthy, says minister
Minister for Housing James Browne said that there has been increased flooding in Enniscorthy due to the climate crisis.
Speaking on the same programme, he said: "There has been a plan there for too long to deliver a flood defence scheme."
He said that he has been speaking to Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, in relation to it.
Mr Browne said that Wexford County Council is applying for planning permission to build a new bridge, which, he said, will "allow for the existing bridge to be removed, which is adding to the flooding pressures".
The minister said that this will allow the local authority to move on to the second phase of the flood relief scheme in Enniscorthy and Co Wexford.
"Wexford County Council submitted an application for a flood relief scheme through the OPW to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform as it was then called.
"It was assessed by environmental and legal experts and it was viewed that if it proceeded it would be in breach of a number of EU environmental regulations and that legally, it was recommended that it could not proceed," he said.
Mr Browne said that since then, he understands that a new application has not been submitted but instead a proposal which was agreed with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to proceed with the first phase of a new bridge for the town.
"So these schemes are taking a considerable length of time. They are from my view, taking way too long.
"It is often the environmental law which is holding up these flood relief schemes right across the country rather than any will or determination by the local authority," he said.
Minister Browne said he has been speaking with Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary, who he said has already opened the Department of Social Protection's aid scheme, adding that he has welcomed the minister's "very swift move on that".
"I expect there will be a need to open the Red Cross scheme as well for businesses. That one will have to go to Cabinet because that is the nature of that scheme," he said.
Fine Gael TD Brian Brennan confirmed that the Emergency Response Payment is now available to those living in properties affected by Storm Chandra in Wicklow and Wexford.
Stage 1 of the scheme is available from today until next Wednesday.
