Q: Where was the American Declaration of Independence signed?

A: At the bottom.

But unlike the areas you mention, they received extensive coverage. They and Johnstown are close to Dublin and easily accessible by the camera crews from RTÉ.

Fault? Yes, of course it will rain and of course there will be floods. That’s nature. But when flooding happens where it never did before, or when development is permitted in locations prone to it, then there is blame to be laid.

Bottom line: Fuck with nature, and you are fucked.

This is a question asked in an examination in the UK and the answer by a brilliant student.

Q: Name one measure which can be put into place to avoid river flooding in times of extensive rainfall(e.g. in Mississippi).

A: flooding in areas such as the Mississippi many be avoided by placing a number of big dames into the river.

I hope that Grannymar gets to see this.

The security guard on the skips intrigues me… in fact the whole thing smells – pun intended.

Stay dry my friend.

There were some very irate and vocal folks from an estate in Sallins (I think) on the Frontline programme on the floods. They were out for blood, justifiably. In Athlone there were cases of looting reported where houses had been evacuated.

Part of the problem in badly flooded areas was sewage floating about in three foot of water, that would turn virtually everything on the ground floor in a house into a biological hazard, particularly to young children.

As a broader observation on the flooding, it was far more widespread than the focus on local hardship would suggest. Only high aerial views of the Shannon catchment from Leitrim to Limerick would give a full picture of the scale of the problem. I know places still flooded that have had no coverage.

Considerable infrastructure has been damaged (roads, waterworks, electricity supply) in areas with no reported flooding crisis. The focus instead has been on ‘blame’, as if the fault can be laid at some authority’s door. Farmers are particularly good at that

The flooding is nobody’s fault, so to speak, but the authories do now have to deal with the reality that certain roads are going to be under three feet of water (unless they are raised), and certain pumping stations are going to be submerged (unless they are moved) and so on, or they can just cross their fingers and pray it doesn’t rain as heavily ever again.

Having had three of our usual routes cut off, and a third ‘passable with care’ I’m now paying close attention to the contours on the map and the whereabouts of the usually free-flowing streams that turned into lakes covering huge acreages under several feet of water.