The husband and wife team of Toddy and Tara Roche who run Kilmore Seafresh in the village of Bridgetown, Co Wexford were hit by flood waters over the weekend for the third time in four years.
The shop was hit on Friday night and the early hours of Saturday morning with 10 inches (25cm) of water. “Not as bad as the last time,” explained an exhausted Toddy Roche after a deluge of rain from Storm Chandra caused the local watercourse to break its banks again.
“We lost some stock but no electrical equipment this time as we had everything high up on crates,” he said. “Only the council gave us a massive big pump to help us, we would have been hit as bad if not worse than last November.”
The couple spent all of Saturday and much of Sunday mopping up. “We are aiming to re-open again this week but we’ll have to wait and see” because of the latest weather forecast which places Wexford under another status yellow rain warning.
Last November the Roches prepared as best they could to battle against Storm Claudia which hit the south Wexford village. Five feet of water engulfed homes and businesses in the area.
Now the parents of two boys in college feel defeated after their shop, a family-run fresh fish business which they opened in 2013, was flooded for a third time alongside other challenges including snow and the pandemic.
Almost three months ago, the couple dumped two fridges and their generator stopped working. “We had other fridges up on crates to try to save them. The fridges are working but don’t know if they will last,” explained Tara Roche (44) in November.
The couple are worn out from fighting the flooding. “At this stage we don’t have the money to put back into this to lose again. It’s 50/50 if we keep going. If we buy in stock next week and this happens again we are completely in the red and owing money. It’s a tough one (to decide what to do),” said Toddy Roche, who said he was tired of calling for flood mitigation measures.
[ Storm Chandra: Flooding possible in ‘many areas’ as further rain forecastOpens in new window ]
“We’ve been advised to move but that will cost up to €60,000 and that’s not viable for us. It breaks our hearts to even have to think about not going on but at this stage we have to think about not going on. There are plenty of people who think we are fools for thinking about continuing but we are stubborn.
“This is all we know. All we know is fishing and fishing. The amount of support we’ve received from customers has been amazing. We take pride in ourselves that everything in this shop is Irish.”