Impact of town centre flood still felt a year on

Impact of town centre flood still felt a year on

6 November 2024

A YEAR after the apocalyptic flood which ripped the heart out of Downpatrick town centre’s business community, some traders are still struggling to keep their heads above water.

There has been heartache, tears, sleepless nights and fear on the road to recovery, with the tentative journey to some semblance of normality punctuated by frustration with how the emergency financial package made available to help was administered.

Under a flood relief financial package, up to £100,000 in funding was available with this money in addition to immediate monetary support that was paid out.

Newry, Mourne and Down Council — which administered the financial support scheme —  has confirmed that around 70% of applications had been approved with more than £4m of funding applied for, with just over half of the cash allocated to businesses in Downpatrick and Newry.

Since the flood, many traders have returned to shops they had to vacate when the biggest flood in living memory swept through last November, destroying everything in its destructive, menacing path.

In a matter of hours, livelihoods had been left in ruins with stunned business owners left to helplessly watch on in silence as flood water inched higher and higher after the Quoile river burst its banks.

In some business premises, the flood water was over six feet high.

As the business community prepares for what it hopes will be a busy period in the run up to Christmas, there is concern that the town centre could flood again.

A report published in the summer on what caused the flooding stopped short of detailing how it could be addressed and what measures are needed to protect the town centre.

The Department for Infrastructure plans to publish a feasibility study next spring focusing on these key issues and insists that in Downpatrick, work continues to find any viable solutions to mitigate the impacts of further flooding in the area.

The DfI said this work was accelerated following the flooding last year and remains on target, but some local traders are concerned that work to address flooding in Newry and Portadown — where there was also major flooding last year — is further advanced than in Downpatrick.

The government department said climate change is increasingly being played out in weather patterns, not just in Northern Ireland, but across Europe.

The DfI says it’s clear that the importance of flood risk management cannot be underestimated and is “complicated and multi-faceted” which is why it’s important it carries out the detailed work necessary to get it right.

Businesswoman Ciara Douglas unwittingly became one of the public faces of last year’s devastating flood which engulfed the town centre.

Heartbreaking images of the tearful woman saving Holy Communion dresses from her St Patrick’s Avenue store – which had yet to celebrate its first anniversary at the time – graphically captured the catastrophic impact of the disaster visited upon the town centre.

After the Quoile river burst its banks, floodwater powered its way across a huge swathe of land stretching from the Vianstown Road across to the Belfast Road, wreaking havoc and destruction along the way.

Mrs Douglas arrived at her Making Memories shop to watch flood water rise menacingly and with her customers foremost in mind, she waded in waist high and started to remove stock, helped willingly by local people.

One of the lasting images of the worst flood to hit Downpatrick in living memory will be the businesswoman carrying communion dresses high above her head to the safety of dry ground.

A year on and back her own shop after having had to temporarily relocate, Ciara remains uncertain about what the future holds for her.

Twelve months on, there are still tears, fears, concern and anxiety about what comes next.

Interviewed last November, Ciara said everything possible had to be done to ensure such catastrophic flood which decimated the town centre never happened again.

Fast forward and the lack of any definitive action plans concerns her, in tandem with the future of her Making Memories business which she may have to close and relocate elsewhere.

“Things are not positive for me nor Downpatrick,” she said.

“Shops that have been here for a very long time will stand. It won’t be the survival of the fittest but who has the most money in their bank account to sustain them and keep them going. Nothing is being done to promote the town to increase footfall to help provide all of us with a lift,” she continued.

Ciara said while there was some initial promotion in the wake of the flood to help generate footfall, the business community has been largely left to get on with it since then.

“Support for my business is not what it was and that’s directly due to the flood. People left the town and got into the habit of not shopping locally.

“We have no dedicated baby shop here, no real woman’s shop and mums are leaving the town to get the things they need because there is nowhere locally for them. When you get complacent and leave the town and shop elsewhere, you will take your business elsewhere.

“People don’t do this deliberately and I have no doubt they genuinely want to support the town, but when they shop elsewhere they get everything they need there.”

Ciara wants to remain in business but says for that to happen more needs to be done to support Downpatrick.

“I am questioning my future here. Things need to change for me. It’s difficult for me to sustain the business given the current footfall,” she said.

“I believe a case should be made to the like of Primark to entice it to the town as its presence would generate footfall and provide a boost for existing businesses. Maybe some sort of package could be put together to make this happen.”

Ciara added: “One year on from the flood, my view is that we need to fight for Downpatrick. We need more investment and the rising financial tide that will bring will help us all. We will keep fighting, we simply have to. I will fight for my shop and the town.”