Flood hit areas braced for more rain

Official financial support to homeowners is to be granted after rescuers used a lifeboat to help people to safety from water lapping at residents’ waists.

Rivers burst their banks, bridges were washed away and dozens of roads closed across the province.

Some places saw up to three-quarters of the normal August rainfall in a single day.

A spokeswoman for Northern Ireland Water said: “We are liaising with the Met Office in relation to possible heavy rainfall in coming days and we are taking all reasonable precautions to protect continuity of our service.”

A spokeswoman for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the PA Group, confirmed another area of rain was moving into the south west of the province and would be affecting the region today.

“There are bands of rain moving across most of the UK and Northern Ireland, possibly bringing heavy downpours at times but unfortunately there’s no distinctly dry days either but hopefully there will be no persistently heavy rainfall,” she added.

On Saturday, the RNLI lifeboat went door to door rescuing people from their homes in Bryansford, Co Down, as waters rose.

Lifeboat spokesman Ian Douthwaite said: “In some parts the water had reached waist level and we wanted to ensure that nobody was stranded in their homes.”

The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service had to help people from their homes in Belfast and counties Down, Armagh and Antrim, with over 850 emergency calls received.

A spokeswoman for Northern Ireland Water, the water and sewerage provider, said there had been enormous pressure on infrastructure, and they had fielded over 3,000 calls.

“NI Water’s major incident response team has been convened and more than 50 teams have been dispatched throughout Northern Ireland to respond to problems.”

She said a pipe from the Fofanny water treatment works in Co Down had been damaged.

Approximately 2,000 people will experience no water and loss of pressure or supply. A bridge was washed away in Ballymena, Co Antrim, and there was up to 62mm of rain in 12 hours in nearby Portglenone.

The newly-constructed Broadway underpass in Belfast was swamped by water, and isn’t expected to reopen until tonight. It is one of the busiest roads in the North, bypassing the city centre for traffic heading south and west.

There have been several landslides, including one about one mile from the Spelga Dam on the Slievemaman Road in Newcastle, Co Down.

In Co Derry, near Tobermore, cattle and sheep were washed away and farmers used trailers to rescue people from the flooding River Moyola, with several houses flooded.

The Ulster Grand Prix at Dundrod, Co Antrim, was among sporting fixtures cancelled yesterday and Carnegie Irish Premier Division football matches, were also affected.

In the Republic, three roads in Carlow town were impassable due to rising water from the River Barrow.

In Co Tipperary a bridge on the main Dublin to Limerick road collapsed. A train derailed in Co Laois.

A flood relief fund similar to that used last year will be launched in the North.

Funding will be made available through local councils to help people most severely affected repair their homes.

The amount will be determined once the full scale of the impact is known.

Money would be released to councils when they had identified the most severe cases.

The focus will not be financial compensation but practical assistance cleaning up flood damage, restoring essential household utilities, and ensuring homes are made habitable as quickly as possible.

Stormont Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy said he was happy everything possible had been done to avoid a repeat of last year’s problems with heavy rain.

On Broadway he said he was waiting for more details of the problem but admitted something had gone wrong.

“Regardless of how much advice and planning you do, the sheer force of nature can overwhelm any system,” he said.

Environment Minister Sammy Wilson said his sympathies were with the homeowners flooded out and said payments would be issued through local councils.