Funeral cancelled as church becomes flooded

Julie Kenwell • Published 27 Oct 2011 13:00 0 Comments

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RESIDENTS across Clogher Valley are still counting the cost of the severe damage caused to homes, churches, cars and roads as a result of seemingly unrelenting rainfall on Monday night.

The West of the Province has been subject to a number of severe weather warnings in the last week.

But on Monday, whilst most of Fermanagh seemed to have escaped unscathed this time round, the people of Clogher Valley were trying to recover from some of the worst flooding they had seen in years.

Members of Carntall Presbyterian Church in Clogher could be without their meeting house for up to six months after it flooded twice in the last week.

On the first occasion last Monday, a funeral service was disrupted when water began to seep into the main body of the church.

"We have never had anything like this in living memory," the Rev. Roy Campbell told The Impartial Reporter on Tuesday, "And now the church has flooded twice in the one week. It flooded again last night.

"Last Monday we just had to evacuate the building and the funeral service had to be cancelled and just go ahead with interment," he explained, "I am still speaking with the family now."

According to the minister though, following the flooding last Monday, the church had been "stripped down to the pews" meaning there was minimum damage when the floods hit again this week.

"In a way it was almost fortunate we were there last Monday because we were able to lift the piano and the organ, which could be worth up to £20,000 alone, along with other items," he said.

Members of the congregation had attempted to place sandbags at the front of the church when the rain returned on Monday this week, however their efforts were to no avail.

Rev. Campbell said Sunday services would be taking place in the church hall for the forseeable future whilst the damage caused to the properties on site is repaired.

"We have been given no time frame of how long we will be out of the meeting house but it could be between a month to six months," said Rev. Campbell, "Thankfully we have no weddings or anything like that in the near future. We are just grateful no one was hurt because, as we have seen on the news there were others who weren't so fortunate."

The owner of Clogher Valley Caravan Park, Neil Somerville told The Impartial Reporter he and his family had been up all night on Monday trying desperately to alleviate the damage caused to their home located on the Fardross Road site.

"It is just a complete mess," he said, "We won't know the true extent of the damage until an assessor comes but it's not the first time this place has been flooded. It happened four years ago and back then there was around £15,000 worth of damage."

Mr Somerville had been in Fivemiletown when he received a frantic call from his wife after 9pm.

"She told me to get back home quick because the place was flooding," he explained, "I had to leave my car at my neighbour's house because I couldn't even get into my own drive with the flooding.

"When I got out I was wading through about two foot of water."

Describing his attempts to move his horses from their water-laden stables to higher ground as well as save the family's pot-bellied pet pig, Mr Somerville said the flooding had not been as bad four years ago.

"I suddenly remembered about our pig, 'Seamus', and when I got to his pen I could see his wee head sticking up out of the water," he said, "We moved the horses then, and by that time the water began coming into the house.

"We couldn't open the front door until the rain had stopped and the water had subsided.

"We got to our beds at about 4.40am and then had to get the kids up the next morning for school. I haven't stopped all day just trying to clear up the mess that's been left behind."

Elsewhere patients from three wards at the Tyrone and Fermanagh hospital site in Omagh had to be relocated as a precautionary measure due to the possibility of flooding on Tuesday.

According to a spokesperson for the Western Trust, a total of 42 patients were moved from three mental health facilities to be accommodated in other Trust facilities in the locality.

"A decision was taken to relocate the patients away from a river flowing through the site which was rising due to heavy rainfall in recent days," said the spokesperson, "There has been no flooding of patient areas or administration buildings on the hospital site."

And according to the Rivers Agency, Upper Lough Erne exceeded the statutory maximum level on Monday night.

The spokesperson said a combination of generation and spilling at the hydroelectric Power Stations at Cliff and Ballyshannon has been ongoing to ensure that water can leave the Erne system as quickly as it can flow down to the dam.

"It must however be recognised that heavy rain results in a greater inflow than can possibly be dealt with even when spilling is in progress.

"Spilling has been ongoing for the past three weeks."

The Western Region of Rivers Agency, which covers Fermanagh, deployed 54 staff members over the weekend to alleviate flooding in the County.

Their spokesperson said this approach had helped to reduce the risk of flooding in Fermanagh.

"October rainfall has so far been above average, with the entire month's average rainfall falling in the first 20 days," they said, "This has resulted in saturated ground conditions and some properties in Fermanagh were flooded last week.

"To help further reduce the risk of flooding members of the public should avoid dumping any material in or near watercourses as this can often lead to blockages.

"With further rainfall forecast for the rest of this week, Rivers Agency staff will maintain the current level of checks and cleaning of inlet grilles and be prepared to offer assistance when requested."

The Flooding Incident Line Number for those who require assistance as a result of flooding is 0300 2000 100.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 27 Oct 11

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