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Thursday, 05 November 2009

Clean-up after flooding chaos

Flooding on the Old Letterkenny Road in Co Londonderry

The clean-up has started for flood-plagued residents across the North West.

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Heavy and persistent rainfall made driving conditions hazardous on Wednesday night, and put a number of homes at risk of damage from the rising and often contaminated water.

The tiny Co Tyrone village of Magheramason was just one of the areas badly affected.

The water started to creep into properties by 6pm as debris washed down the streets blocking storm drains.

One resident in the small cull-de-sac of Wallace Heights returned to her home after heart surgery to find it starting to flood, causing her floors to lift.

Another elderly cancer sufferer was left stranded with no heating.

In Londonderry, the main road to Letterkenny flooded and traffic sent water surging towards nearby houses.

Residents took drastic action, blocking the road and refusing to let cars through.

One woman told UTV: "We felt totally, totally abandoned by the authorities. We had to take the situation into our own hands.

"We actually had to go out as residents and block the road last night."

A statement from Northern Ireland Water said: "Staff and contractors have been mobilised to those areas affected and are assisting the other agencies involved."

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3 Comments

At 12:53 on 05 November 2009, F Sandford wrote:

Lets face it...any weather that is slightly unusual...be it rain or snow or ice or wind, brings us to a standstill. So why do we get excited about it? It's always been the same!

At 11:08 on 05 November 2009, Andrew Dickson wrote:

First I'd like to say its an absolute joke that the main route in the Northwest's capital was closed due to flooding, not only that, but the news reports and flood information is very poor, no information what so ever about roads which where closed last night and if they have re-opened or not. I also think its a joke that a country that has a record for high rain fall for the past 4 or 5 years cannot cope with 3 hours of heavy rain fall

At 07:45 on 05 November 2009, jim wrote:

i came through this last evening on my way home... road was very badly flooded...the houses at old city court were in danger of being flooded and no sign of road service or any other service to pump the water away.. petrol cars stuck because they stalled abd the diesel motors just kept on going... trouble is, on that stretch of road there are fields on the right of it and thats where the water was comming from..water was running down the field and through the walls that are built at the road side. drainage system can't cope with it....so come on DOE, you know it happens so why don't you fix it...