A business owner in Bantry has said water was coming 'up through the floors' despite having flood barriers in place.

Some 65 millimetres of rain fell over a 12-hour period in the Cork town at the weekend causing extensive damage to up to 40 homes and businesses.

Bantry is a high risk area, having flooded four times in 18 months between 2018 and 2020.

Susan Sheperd of Philip J Dix Jewellers told Lunchtime Live things happened very fast.

"It all kind of happened so quickly really," she said.

"We were in the shop around 12.50pm and the rain had been coming down heavy for a good couple of hours.

"I noticed the streets were starting to flood.

"I said to my colleague, 'We have flood barriers to put down in [case] of a flood' - so we went to put the flood barriers up."

Flooding in Bantry, Co Cork. Image: Supplied

Ms Sheperd said at this point water was 'gushing' down the street.

"The street was really flooded by then - the manhole cover just down the street from us had blown up," she said.

"There was water gushing out, the fire brigade were pumping - it was battle stations, really.

"The flood, unfortunately for us, we'd the barriers in place front and back but the waters actually came up through the floors of the shop.

"So effectively we were keeping the waters in instead of letting them out".

Clean up after flooding in Bantry, Co Cork. Image: Supplied

Ms Sheperd said they were trying to move everything off the shop floor.

"Our neighbour kindly said to us, 'You need to lift the barriers up, you're keeping the water in' - so we lifted the barriers up and everything just went gushing out again," she said.

"It was just crazy".

Ms Sheperd aid the flood was not as bad as back in 2020 since they were "on hand to start saving stocks".

She said, however, there is a lot of damage done to parts of the shop.

"There's a lot of damage done to our units, our display units," she said.

"There's a lot of [damage to] electrical units, floor sockets - all of that stuff.

"Everything is just warping now because it's drying out- everything is warping and bending and breaking.

"We won't know for sure yet until people come in and calculate the exact loss of how much we've lost and how much we can save."

'Property damage'

Eddie Wiseman from Wisemans Clothing and Footwear said most of his stock is safe.

"Luckily it happened during the day when we were here [so] we were able to salvage most of our stock," he said.

"But it's the property damage - your floors, your fittings, your walls - [they are] old buildings, the water soaks in there.

"So you've to try and dry them out which cost a lot of money."

Mr Wiseman said there are "gallons of water nightly" being taken away as they use humidifiers to try and dry out the premises.

He said that the latest flooding wasn't anything to do with the tide.

"In the past the tide was blamed a lot," he said.

"Now it's just the accelerated rainflow into town that the the underground drainage can't cope with.

"So that backs up and when that backs up it flows out of the drains and into our properties.

"We were fully protected - we'd sandbags all over the front of ours - but the pressure of the water just forces its way in through the walls and back doors".

Ms Shepard and Mr Wiseman said both their businesses are trading as they have to "drive on".

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Main image: Clean up after flooding in Bantry, Co Cork. Image: Supplied