Utter heartbreak

Utter heartbreak

8 November 2023

BUSINESSWOMAN Ciara Douglas unwittingly became one of the public faces of the devastating flood which engulfed Downpatrick town centre, leaving many shops under four feet of water.

Heartbreaking images of the tearful woman saving Holy Communion dresses from her St Patrick’s Avenue store — which has yet to celebrate its first anniversary —captured the catastrophic impact of the disaster visited upon the town centre after the Quoile river burst its banks.

The waterway couldn’t cope after the wettest October on record with floodwater powering its way across a huge swathe of land stretching from the Vianstown Road across to the Belfast Road, wreaking havoc and destruction along the way.

A number of business owners said they were assured on Wednesday afternoon that their properties were safe from flooding, but on Thursday morning, the calamitousness of the assertion was blindingly obvious.

Mrs Douglas arrived at her Making Memories shop to watch flood water continue to rise menacingly and with her customers foremost in mind, she waded towards her store, opened up and started to remove stock, helped willingly by local people.

One of the lasting images of the worst flood to hit Downpatrick in living memory will be the businesswoman carrying communion dresses high above her head to the safety of dry ground before they were loaded into a van and taken to a safe storage location.

With tears streaming down her face she managed to break into a nervous smile when interviewed by reporters, assuring customers that the dresses they had ordered were safe.

Helped by her husband Joseph, family members and staff from neighbouring businesses, Mrs Douglas removed all she could from her store as the water level rose scarily by the minute.

Removing the dresses was a chink of light on a dark day and as Mrs Douglas cleared her shop, heartbroken business owners who were standing watching, looked on in admiration, marvelling at her indomitable spirit.

“So many people helped me which is a real demonstration of the community spirit we have in this town,” said the businesswoman.

“So many people have been affected by this disaster and the images of the town centre under so much water need to go out as we all need help and support to recover from this. It is going to take a while but we have to try and bounce back.

“This disaster has ramifications for so many, many people and it is so sad what has happened. These businesses are our livelihoods.”

Mrs Douglas said she was fortunate she had somewhere to store her stock and explained if she and other business owners had been warned that the 

flood was going to be so bad, they could have cleared their stores before it struck.

“When I was told that it was safe to go into my shop on Thursday morning I did and got out as much as I could. I can’t thank enough the people who helped me,” she continued.

“It is my first year in business and things were going really well. Last month was amazing for me and the response from local people been fabulous.”

With over 30 dresses rescued from her store, Mrs Douglas said the questions many want answered is exactly what happened to leave Downpatrick town centre under so much water.

“If they knew this was coming why did they let it happen? she asked.

“Why did they not get people together and everyone would have helped each other move stock. We would have had time to do it before the flood came and people wouldn’t be standing here with their businesses in ruins.”

Mrs Douglas said business owners would have preferred to overreact than to stand in four feet of dirty flood water trying to salvage what they could.

“Businesses have been ruined. This is a small community town and it’s devastating for everyone. Many of these are family owned and we need help and we need it now,” she said.

Mrs Douglas said many of the impacted stores do not have flood insurance as what happened is deemed “an act of God.”

She continued: “Were do we go from here? Maybe we can find alternative premises. The floor in my shop has lifted and it will be quite some time before I get back in and many businesses are in the same boat.

“There should have been an emergency plan in place to deal with a situatioin like this. We are after all in a flood plain, there should have been contingency measures.”

Mrs Douglas also shared her frustration about the lack of response on the ground from the statutory agencies last week, with only Newry, Mourne and Down Council officials present until late afternoon.

She added: “Traders felt forgotten about on Thursday. We need to ensure a catastrophic flood like this never happens again and we must be given the help and financial support to get over this. We can’t do this ourselves.”