UTV News - Lough Erne levels 'highest on record'

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Lough Erne levels 'highest on record'

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Flooding in Co Fermanagh
As continuous rain keeps falling on flood-hit Co Fermanagh, the water level in Lough Erne reaches its highest ever record.

The equivalent of three months of rainfall has fallen in the last three weeks in the West of Northern Ireland.

There has been extensive flooding throughout Fermanagh over the last few days, as flood water turned roads into rivers and farmlands into lakes.

Philip Mahaffey, Operations Director at the Rivers Agency, said: "The outflow channel is operating at full capacity and has been for almost three weeks.

"Basically we have to wait for some dry weather."

Mr Mahaffey said the current main priority for the Agency is to reduce the water level of the Lough.

"These things move quite slowly, and it's highly likely the extensive flooding on the roads could continue for another week."

It is also believed that it would take at least four weeks of dry weather for water levels to return to normal.

"It has been exceptionally wet, there have been slow moving weather fronts for the last 40 days or so and it has been the West which has been capturing all that moisture off the Atlantic," John Wylie from the Met Office told UTV.

"In fact parts of Fermanagh in and around the Enniskillen area have had the best part of 12 inches of rain and only two dry days over the last 40 days, so it is really quite exceptional", he added.

"The rest of Northern Ireland, whilst it has been wet, hasn't actually been too bad."

The region has become used to flooding in the last couple of years, with Belfast suffering badly last summer.

"We will see more extreme rain events, short period rain events in the summer but in the winter more protracted rain fall events with an associated risk in flooding. We may have to prepare ourselves for more of this longer term," John Wylie told UTV.


If you have any concerns about flooding, call the incident helpline number on 0300 2000 100

There is also advice on the Northern Ireland Direct website at www.nidirect.gov.uk

© UTV News

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At 22:39 on 24 November 2009, colin wrote:
will we still have to pay water charges
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