Lough Erne at record levels and still rising

Rodney Edwards • Published 26 Nov 2009 09:00 0 Comments

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Devastating floods wreaked havoc across Fermanagh as torrential rain continues to push the water level in Lough Erne to a critical level.

At the time of going to Press, the water level was still rising but at a slower rate.

Three months of rain has fallen in the last three weeks - the highest on record - causing widespread flooding and devastation across the county. Businesses, along with farms have been disrupted, and a number of schools have been badly hit. Moat Primary School in Lisnaskea has more than 20 pupils attending from the Derrylin and Teemore area but they were not able to get to school because of the closure of the Newbridge Road linking Lisnaskea and Derrylin. Instead, the principal, Felicity Humphreys and another teacher travelled to Teemore to take classes in a community hall.

Families have been left stranded, shops have shut and roads have closed as floods never seen before here continue to take their toll.

For one Fermanagh farmer, the 38 days of incessant rain has caused him 'complete mayhem' with two thirds of his 100 acre farm submerged in water.

Jack McVitty from Drumany, Lisnaskea said he feared his cows had been swept away in the floods; "My cattle got out on Friday because they were up to their bellies in water. They swam across in 2.5ft of water by themselves. I couldn't find them anywhere and thought they had been taken away but then I found them lying up on top of a silo pit," he explained,

The farmer has been forced to put his milk in the slurry pit as the water around his farm reaches shocking levels; "I have to take a tractor in order to get through the floods. I drive a four wheel drive tractor and can assure you, if you stepped off it you would be dead. The lights of the tractor are almost under water," said Mr. McVitty.

Mr. McVitty's wife Jean couldn't get to work in Enniskillen for several days after her car (along with six others) got stuck in the floods. And with no bin collection or post for over a week, Mr. McVitty is calling for 'immediate' action from the Rivers Agency.

"I'm not impressed with any of these agencies because they don't think very much of us. They're not taking this seriously enough. The whole community here is upset that they can't get out," he said.

"When that water goes down - beer bottles, cans, you name it will be left on the owner's land. Why should I be responsible for cleaning up this trash? There is also a weed that grows on the lake. When the water rises it uproots the roots and when the water drifts it comes onto the land. This weed is highly dangerous and will poisonous cattle. It's deadly to livestock. These agencies have responsibility to help us but they're doing nothing," added Mr. McVitty.

Another farmer Alan Armstrong has had to take a boat back and forward to feed the cattle on his farm as water levels reach a staggering 6ft.

"There's a little bridge you have to cross to get into our farm and normally if it floods really bad you can get in and out on a tractor. This time we have to use a boat to get across onto the land to feed the cattle. We're surrounded by water; streams are now lakes. Our land is now a little island. And the fences are below the line of the water. What can anybody do? The water isn't going anywhere," he said.

Yvonne Sweeney and her family have also been trapped inside her home along Kilmore Quay for several days and the water levels keep rising.

"At the moment they are up to at least 5ft. My husband has been out with a boat taking some of our neighbours to the other side of the floods and making sure they're OK because there is no way you'd take a car out in it, you'd wreck it. We're stuck here and can't get out of our home," she said.

"Not one person from the Rivers Agency has contacted us to see if we're all right. Nobody seems to know about it or want to help. I did ring them but they weren't helpful at all. I'm angry because we've been given no information by those responsible and the isolation of it all is dreadful. It's terrible hardship," said Mrs. Sweeney.

The Smith family living close by have spoken of their anger after floods prevented them from getting to hospital earlier this week. Dad Seamus explained how his family have been left stranded for nearly a week; "My wife has smashed her arm in three places and was due to be seen by a surgeon in the Erne Hospital but we couldn't get past the floods and had to cancel it. The child was also due at the hospital for a check-up but we couldn't get out," he said.

"Absolutely none of the agencies has helped us and we're very angry about that. We pay our rates the same as everybody else and expect a better service. It would have been nice if the Rivers Agency actually contacted us. It wouldn't be too hard to ask us if there's anything we need. At the moment we're relying on the help of our neighbours. In regards to getting out, we can't - it's pretty worrying and we'll soon be out of food," he said.

Also trapped in flooding hell for a shocking seven days is pensioner Derek Armstrong. He has over 25 acres of land under 4ft of water.

"Five canoes came right across the hedge, heading for Lisnaskea. Neighbours have come to me on a tractor with groceries like bread and milk. I can't see anything but water. I'll be the first to properly flood too if it gets any worse," said Mr. Armstrong.

Oliver Wilkinson, Manager of Share Centre explained how his complex has been affected in the nightmare as well; "The pool deck has an extra six inches or so of water and so does the buildings around the complex. The waters continues to rise and we're hoping we've seen the worst of it because so far we've had about a foot of water here. There is also a lot of grit coming in and the water now has an oily mixture in it and it has started to work its way up the walls and into various crevices around the building," he added.

David Porter of the Rivers Agency commented that Lough Erne now has a staggering 158.1ft of water.

"It's usually 155ft, so there's been quite an increase. You need to understand about how the system works to understand what's happening out there. Every year we anticipate flooding and draw down the level of water for flood storage. At the start of October we start to drew down the level to 150ft, providing us with 5ft of depth of storage if anything was to happen. But essentially we've had a prolonged level of rain and this was inevitable," he said.

The levels of the Erne system were expected to peak over the next day or so as drier weather was forecast.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 26 Nov 09

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