NI braced for more downpours

With one of the main arterial routes swamped with 20 million gallons of water on Saturday, there are fears of major traffic disruption amid predictions of more rain.

Official financial support to homeowners is to be granted after rescuers used a lifeboat to help people to safety from water lapping at residents' waists.

Rivers burst their banks, bridges were washed away and dozens of roads closed across the province. Some places saw up to three-quarters of the normal August rainfall in a single day.

A spokeswoman for Northern Ireland Water said: "We are liaising with the Met Office in relation to possible heavy rainfall in coming days and we are taking all reasonable precautions to protect continuity of our service."

On Saturday, the RNLI lifeboat went door to door rescuing people from their homes in Bryansford, Co Down, as waters rose. Lifeboat spokesman Ian Douthwaite said: "In some parts the water had reached waist level and we wanted to ensure that nobody was stranded in their homes."

The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service had to help people from their homes in Belfast and counties Down, Armagh and Antrim, with over 850 emergency calls received.

A spokeswoman for Northern Ireland Water, the water and sewerage provider, said there had been enormous pressure on infrastructure, and they had fielded over 3,000 calls. "NI Water's major incident response team has been convened and more than fifty teams have been dispatched throughout Northern Ireland to respond to problems."

She said a pipe from the Fofanny water treatment works in Co Down had been damaged. Approximately 2,000 people will experience no water and loss of pressure or supply. A bridge was washed away in Ballymena, Co Antrim, and there was up to 62mm of rain in 12 hours in nearby Portglenone.

There have been several landslides, including one about one mile from the Spelga Dam on the Slievemaman Road in Newcastle, Co Down. And in Co Derry, near Tobermore, cattle and sheep were washed away and farmers used trailers to rescue people from the flooding River Moyola, with several houses flooded.