Parts of St Mary's Park in Limerick remained under water today although floodwaters have begun to recede.
While the water level has dropped, many cars remain submerged and homes flooded.
Tears welled up in Mary Hogan’s eyes as she looked out on the river that used to be her front garden.
Pointing to a settee in her swamped living room, the mother of two from Oliver Plunkett Street, St Mary's Park, said: "That couch I got it just before Christmas, the water is up over the seats of it. You can see the (water) marks. The water is dripping off of it. The dirt is all up my walls."
The house is just one of hundreds ruined after the River Shannon burst its banks and swamped houses on the King’s Island area.
Mother of three Ann Keogh was asleep in bed when the floods swept through her home on Oliver Plunket Street at seven in the morning.
“My grandchild’s birthday was Thursday. He was three years old. All his birthday presents are gone. Every possession I owned is gone.”
“What am I going to do? I’m living in a river,” she said fighting back tears.
Her son Dean (15) who breeds pigeons in the back yard, was devastated after finding eight baby pigeons drowned in the flood.
“The water was coming in and it just filled up the shed, and the baby pigeons that had hatched out the day before died because they were low down on the ground. Luckily I have sand bags down there now to keep out the water,” Dean explained.
“I have pigeons about a year now. It’s a hobby, something to do because there’s nothing else to do around here. I race them as well at St Mary’s Racing Pigeon Club.”
Residents have been removing their furniture and fittings from downstairs rooms and dumping the sodden, filthy contents outside their front doors.
Mounds of furniture, mattresses and kitchen appliances dot the local landscape.
Minister for the Office of Public Works, Brian Hayes and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan are to meet residents at 2pm.
Limerick City Council has already lobbied the government for emergency funding to help those worst affected by the flood.
St Munchin’s Family Resource Centre, Killeely, is providing the flood victims with 200 free breakfasts, lunches and dinners.
Some 2,000 people living in 200-300 homes have been affected by the flooding with the worst hit areas in St Mary’s Park and Kings Island.
A total of 60 people were evacuated from their homes on Saturday and assistance provided to several hundred others by the army, the Civil Defence, The Order of Malta, The Irish Red Cross and Limerick Marine Search and Rescue.
The adverse weather conditions have also impacted on travel and bus transfers remain in place for intending rail travellers between Limerick and Ennis due to flooding on line.
Speaking this morning, Limerick County Council’s director of transport and travel Paul Crowe said it was too early to estimate the cost of the damage other than to say it was “very extensive”.
Mr Crowe said the council was watching to see if the next high tide brings further damage or flooding. He said local authorities will be looking from assistance from Government.
“I think the scale of what we’ve experienced here is beyond the resources of the city and county and we’ll certainly be looking for national assistance,” he told RTÉ radio.
Gale force winds along with heavy rain and higher than normal coastal tides have put Atlantic coasts under threat of further flooding in recent days.