Posted online: Dec 4th, 2009

“We bought our house three months
ago…now it’s underwater”

By Sinéad Flanagan
Editor

“WE BOUGHT our house three months ago, we just finished the painting on Saturday…” those were the words of Anna Wajda. Anna (27) and her husband Lucas (28) had just settled into their home in The Waterways, Sallins when they were forced to flee on Sunday due to flooding.
Having had offers on three other houses initially, Anna remarked that they had no idea their home was at risk of flooding in The Waterways, and choose to go with that one as the bedrooms were “slightly bigger” in it.
Anna and Lucas’s only family in Ireland, her twin sister lives beside them and her home too, is underwater. With a 16 month old baby, and having been prepared for their family to travel to them from Poland for the Christmas, the two remark that they feel as though they are stuck in a “nightmare”.
Stepping off a Civil Defence boat on Monday, the two grabbed a buggy and a few essential items before they left their home, unsure of when they will return.
Meanwhile, the residents queue continued to grow for the Civil Defence boat as people waited to get back into their homes for one more time, to grab a few items on Tuesday.
Rebecca (32) and Ambrose Finnerty (32) moved into their house in The Waterways two years ago. While Rebecca says she was away for the weekend, she says she received a frantic call from her husband on Sunday morning to say the water was coming into their home. While Ambrose fought to take what he could upstairs, the floods were too high by the time Rebecca got back a few hours later for her to go in. Remarking on the situation, Rebecca says “it’s devastating. It’s still only stuff, but it’s your stuff. You just never know what’s going to happen. We literally have a bag of clothes, that’s it.”