North to south (more or less)
O’Briensbridge is on the original course of the Shannon, downstream of Parteen Villa Weir, which controls how much water goes via the original course and how much goes to the hydroelectric power station at Ardnacrusha.
Normally, the original course gets the first 10 cubic metres per second (10 cumec, they say) of water and Ardnacrusha gets the next 400, 100 for each of its four turbines. In floods, any excess is sent down the original course, through O’Briensbridge, Castleconnell and Plassey. One newspaper today said that, on Monday 7 December 2015, 315 cumec had been sent down the original course and, on Tuesday 8 December, 375 cumec.
The water levels are still below the peak achieved in November 2009, but there is more to come: as the Shannon drains a very large amount of Ireland, and as it is falls very little in its upper reaches, it takes a long time for the runoff to reach Killaloe and Parteen Villa. It may be that the ESB, which controls Ardnacrusha and Parteen Villa, is now running down the level of Lough Derg to make room for the water that has yet to arrive from the upper Shannon.
Thanks BJG for the very interesting photographs.
One thing puzzles me in relation to the effects of the recent storm(s): where are the local authorities and what are they doing?
In the now famous Teresa Mannion’s reports, the segment on Crossmolina showed locals mopping up; ditto elsewhere. On Sky they showed Cumbria, which was in bad shape, but had lots of local authority activity; the Local Authority seemed to think they had a role when Nature hit.
To be fair, they wouldn’t really show up in my photos, which concentrate on the marinas and other watery locations. I did note that there were warnings (see eg Tuamgraney) all over the place and flooded sections of road had been blocked off. I saw Council workers at Portumna and sandbags being positioned in Castleconnell. bjg
Brian how many acres are under water between the Parteen villa and the city.
I have no idea. The Irish Times has some satellite images today but they don’t go far enough out. bjg