Rainwater 'gushing like torrential river'
BUSINESSES and householders were yesterday assessing the damage after a freak storm caused havoc in Armagh.
Around 5pm on Wednesday, a deluge flooded homes and businesses across the city, with some areas engulfed in two feet of water.
Businesses in the Railway Street and Ogle Street areas suffered the worst of the damage, while some residences on the Cathedral Road were also affected.
John McConville, of Four Star Pizza in Railway Street, described how the hour-long downpour unleashed itself.
"At about 5.30pm there was a thunderstorm and torrential rain. I think the rain came down that quick the drains couldn't cope with the water.
"The water just held itself on the road. Then it started lapping up to the shop door, then over the shop door. It just came running in even though we had the door closed. The water just kept gushing in underneath the door.
"We got sandbags about an hour later but at that stage all the water had come in through the shop.
"We have an assessor coming out but we are hoping to be open for business tonight.
"There's no damage to stock luckily enough but we were closed last night so we lost all that business and Wednesday night is usually a busy night for us
"I don't think it is a question of blaming Road Service or anyone. It was just one of those things. It came that fast and nothing could cope with it. The water cleared very quickly for us as well.
"But it was the clean-up that was tough. We weren't out of here until 12 o'clock last night."
Greg McKenzie, of Armagh Premier Cabs in Railway Street, also had a tough night cleaning up.
He said: "The rain came on that heavy we had to take a couple of cars off the road. They couldn't see. We were back here sitting in the taxi office and all of a sudden there was about an inch of water came into the office.
"Within about 30 seconds there was about eight or nine inches of water. Straight away we lifted the computer.
"The water was just gushing and gushing. It was just unbelievable. It was like a torrential river."
After about an hour-and-a-half, the DoE came with sandbags, said Mr McKenzie.
"It wasn't their fault. There is no way they could have envisaged that it would be so bad. I couldn't fault them. They were as quick as probably they could be.
"So all the sandbags went down and we helped all the neighbours to put the sandbags up and just waited for the rain to stop and the water to drain away.
"When it subsided it was unbelievable. The silt on the floor was awful. Me and the wife and a few of the boys were here until three o'clock this morning.
"There are so many businesses here and there is a lot of water going into the drains anyway. Plus they're doing road works there. I'm not blaming the roadworks by any means because it was freak weather but it probably wouldn't have helped.
"Once the rain stopped it did clear away very quickly. It was just freak weather, but freak weather is becoming more and more common.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Regional Development yesterday said: “There is a multiagency approach employed to dealing with flooding including distribution of sandbags by DARD’s Rivers Agency, DRD Roads Service and NI Water.
“There was no shortage of sandbags and 450 were distributed yesterday by the agencies responding to flooding in Armagh.”
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Weather for Belfast
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
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