Farmer: Mid-Shannon area 'an absolute sea of water'

About 15,000 acres of land in the mid-Shannon area remains flooded this morning.

Farmer: Mid-Shannon area 'an absolute sea of water'

About 15,000 acres of land in the mid-Shannon area remains flooded this morning.

No weather warnings are in place today, but there'll be lots of showers this afternoon and heavier downpours tomorrow.

Farmer Michael Silke says 120 acres of his land on the Offaly/Galway border is under water.

Mr Silke, the chairman of the Mid-Shannon Flood Relief Group, said the problem is very widespread.

Mr Silke said: "Well there's, I'd say, anywhere from 6,000 hectares flooded around the mid-Shannon area.

"It's an absolute sea of water at the moment and there are a lot of houses which are flooded, there are a lot of cattle yards which are flooded and there are an awful lot of houses under serious threat at the moment, so it's a very, very serious situation."

He added that the people of rural Ireland have been "thrown to the wolves" in the flooding crisis.

He claims 15,000 acres of land in the mid-Shannon area is under water, while about 40 roads in Galway are impassable.

Mr Silke claims not enough work has been done to tackle problem, after bad flooding in previous years.

He said: "There's been a lot of work done in the urbanised areas, flood defences have been built and they certainly have been very beneficial to the people who live there.

"But when you come out into rural Ireland, there has been nothing done to stop an event like this occurring again. So we are just being thrown to the wolves, to be very honest."

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