Published Monday, 30 July 2012
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The interim report, carried out by Belfast City Council, has indentified a lack of communication, problems with the flood helpline, and confusion over who was responsible for providing sandbags.
The document states that although the council activated its emergency plan "quickly", the flood response - which required "rapid sharing of information across agencies" - still took "too much time...to get systems in place to share this information in a meaningful way".
A Met Office warning for heavy rain was in place, but the council report said officers only became aware of the situation when they began to take calls of flooding in the city at 7.30pm.
The emergency room at the city hall opened 40 minutes later, while almost two inches of rain fell across the city in just a few hours.
The Fire and Rescue Service said at one stage between 6pm and midnight they took calls every 20 seconds, but the Department of Finance and Personnel's Flooding Incident line "did not appear to operate effectively...as it was not staffed up quickly enough".
The report also states that, as a result, the council received repeat phone calls from distressed residents who were unable to get through.
In total, 7,000 sandbags were delivered to prevent water from getting into homes across the city, and while the report states residents were being told the bags would be organised by the council, there were no agreements in place with the council.
This caused confusion among the council, Rivers Agency and NI Water, as well as residents.
However, a sandbag protocol has been drafted by the council and agencies to prevent the situation recurring.
In total, Belfast City Council received 1,463 requests for service and made payments under the Department of the Environment financial assistance scheme to 643 households.
It is expected that the report will be followed up with a more detailed document and an external review.