DEAR SIR:

A lot of the media coverage relating to floods uses the word unprecedented.

The facts are, Harvey was 14th in the list of the most severe hurricanes to hit the US since records began and the first severe hurricane in 12 years. The massive flooding in Houston was due to its slow movement and not its intensity. In December 1935, a massive flood occurred in the Houston downtown area as the water level height measured at Buffalo Bayou in Houston topped out at 54.4ft. The current flooding topped out at about 38ft.

As regards our own flooding, near Malin Head, the 52mm of rain in Clonroche, Co Wexford, on 27 June 1986 is about 1.5 times as much in one hour as Malin Head had in two hours last Tuesday 22 August. The 77mm of rainfall at Malin Head on 22 August is exceeded by a factor of 3.2 by the 244mm at Cloone Lake in Co Kerry on 18 September 1993.