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Belfast Live

National

Shaun Keenan

Derry family business "devastated" after flooding hits for second time in five years

Derry Flood Council

The owner of a takeaway in Co Derry has been left "devastated" after their business was damaged after a heavy weekend of flooding in the North West.

Sean Farren, from Eglinton, and who is the owner of Twice as Nice in the village, said he had been left "completely disheartened" after his business was gutted with water following heavy rainfall in the region on Saturday (July 23).

Dozens of homes were also completely ruined in parts of Co Derry and Strabane, with six people having to be rescued by the fire service - five from properties and one from a trapped car.

The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service said that 106 emergency calls related to flooding were dealt with between 7am on Saturday morning and 1:30am on Sunday morning. As a result of the calls, fire crews responded to 49 incidents.

The heavy flooding took many by surprise, including businessman Mr Farren who told MyDerry that while he could deal with the shock, it was the anger 'that was getting the better of him'.

"This is the second time that this happened to my business within the last five years and I am absolutely devastated. It keeps happening over and over again and it's not on.

"I am paying rates to the council every year and they aren't giving me much back in return. This is devastating to my business.

"I was in Enniskillen at the time the rain started and my son rang me to tell me that the car park was filled with water and at that stage. I didn't panic because that car park has been filled with water many times before but it always went away."

He continued: "But it didn't go away this time and we learnt very quickly that it was in the shop. I could watch the shop through the CCTV on my phone. I told my employees to go home and it started to get higher and higher.

"It got up to about 14 inches and we could start to see things that we use in the shop floating around. It was heartbreaking to watch because in 2017 the shop was ruined and I was only beginning to get back on my feet."

Meanwhile, flooding occurred in a number of other areas in Derry, including Brandywell, Creggan, Bogside, Foyle Road, Strand Road, and Waterside.

A resident from Ivy Mead, which was badly affected, said that a 'lack of sandbags' made the rapidly-evolving situation difficult to manage.

Properties in Ivy Mead affected by flooding (HANDOUT)

The resident, who didn't want to be named, said: "At around 9pm on [Saturday July, 24] my neighbour told me to move my car as the water was starting to gather around our corner and she lost hers last time.

"It was 10pm when it started to get worse and a councillor came out and said they’d get us sandbags but they had run out. Meanwhile, everyone on the way into Ivy Mead and on Church Road had sandbags and no water was near their houses yet, but no sandbags were down near us even though we were beside the river and where the water was starting to gather.

"In the next half an hour water was almost at the people's waist and I had about four sandbags at this point at my front door and none at my back door.

"At 10:30pm I put up a post on Facebook because I couldn’t get any sandbags and I'd say it was another 45 minutes before I got more and only because men had seen the water over our front step and they brought us more over from the dump truck in a panic. By 11.30pm, it started to come into the house from the front doors back doors and even through the walls."

Derry City and Strabane District Council said they were working with relevant agencies as part of a multi-agency response to provide "urgent support and assistance".

A council spokesperson said: "Council’s Environmental Health staff are carrying out inspections and assessments of domestic properties to help assess the level of flood damage.

"The Emergency Payment Scheme has been made available by the Department for Communities to assist those worst affected by the floods in the City and District.

"This fund is available to assist householders by providing up to £1,000 to help make their home fit to live in following inspections by Council staff on homes affected. It is important to note this is not a compensation scheme and that any compensation claims will have to be dealt with through householders and their insurance companies.

"To avail of the emergency payment scheme, householders must register their property through the Department’s Flood Helpline and have their property assessed by Council."

Meanwhile, the Department for Infrastructure said that their department was "well prepared" for this event, adding that they helped further properties from flooding damage compared to that in 2017.

They said: "We were on a heightened state of alert with staff on standby, even though the weather warning was provided at short notice.

"This was a significant event and we were extremely busy with over 350 flood-related calls and over 8000 sandbags deployed.

"Multi-agency partners were on board with regular communication between all civil contingency partners. In terms of comparison to previous events, some 60-70mm of rain fell over an eight to nine-hour period during the northwest event in August 2017 which resulted in around flooding of 400 properties.

"Met Office has confirmed there was 70mm in five hours on Saturday evening, July 23, which compares with the intensity of the 2017 event.

"This time though, it is estimated that around 40 properties may have flooded. As a result of the efforts by the Department through Saturday evening and into the early hours of Sunday morning, many homes were protected from flooding.

"As further weather warnings were in place for Sunday, July 24 we remained on full alert and continued with maintenance of essential drainage infrastructure throughout the day.”

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