My Cork city flood, November 2009

Ballyhooly Road —

Notes from a lashing rainstorm of historic volume

Municipal supply of water cut off. Different versions of the story; the guy outside the pub told me that the main pipe under the river broke in the floodwater; the Independent writes that the supply was cut off "after fears that Lee pumping station had been contaminated."

...And I'm hoping for more rain, set up as we are now to catch it, so that we don't have to walk for a bucketfull for every flush of the toilet. The municipal supply is going to be out for at least a week. The pumping station that is meant to supply about 50,000 people is under water.... And I'm hoping for a bit of rain?... (We got it, too, and soon — enough to fill the large wheelie-bin that we'd set underneath a broken rainspout.)

  — Sunday, November 22, 2009

The local council has appealed to householders in the county to conserve drinking water.

Conserve it? We're buying it, and/or walking for it. And drinking water is not even half the concern. You need a lot of water in a modern house, and of at least two grades of quality requirements. Three, really — drinking, washup, and toilet.

  — Monday, November 23

...Experiencing dietary changes in the lack of tapwater. Strict vegetarianism; meat is too messy. No green salads; washing lettuce takes lots of clean cold water (hot water can be "clean" — sanitary; and cold water can be useful, not-completely-clean. Clean and cold is not to be splashed around.) I looked askance at a chilli pepper today — and left it in the fridge, because I don't want that oil on my skin....

  — Thursday, November 26