Clonakilty Town Mayor, Cllr. Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháín has welcomed the setting up of a new Free Flood Text Alert system which is now operational for the town, and he is encouraging everyone in the community to sign up. It has been set up by Cork County Council, and is a pilot system for the Clonakilty area. Mayor Ó Súilleabháin stated:
“As Clonakilty continues to recover from the flooding experiences of the summer, I welcome the setting up of this new Flood Alert system, and want to thank Cork County Council and all who worked to bring it to reality.
The issue of setting up a warning system to alert people if flooding of their area is an imminent threat, has been one of the priorities of the Town Council Flood Sub Committee since June’s disaster, and I’m glad to see the system is now in place. I encourage everyone in Clonakilty to sign up. But they must do so personally online, and the link is posted up on the Cork County Council website homepage. While this obviously will not prevent flooding, it will give people notice of a flood threat in the future, and may give people time to take steps to defend their property and minimise possible damage to goods. As well as sending a text to you mobile phone, an email will also be sent, and you have the option of a recorded voice message being sent to your landline phone. Our hope and prayers of course would be that we will never again have a flood threat in Clonakilty, but if we do, this system will help in some way in that it will give people time to make arrangements to defend their houses and businesses.
I also welcome the fact that it can have a very localised focus. When people sign up, they should enter their full address. Alerts will be issued according to the areas at risk, rather than the whole town. So for example if there was a risk of tidal flooding – which would only affect the eastern end of town, the people at the western end would not be alerted. To log on and register, click on the following link: http://www.corkcoco.ie/co/web/Global%20Nav/Home. I also welcome the fast that this system will also send out Severe Weather Alert warnings, and in the future will also encompass things like Closed Roads, Boil Water Notices, Gritting and Salting of roads, etc. I want to again compliment everyone who has set up this system, and to thank the Town Council Flood Sub Committee for their ongoing work in keeping these items on the agenda of the authorities”