Antrim floods were ‘among the worst’ - says minister
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Sammy Wilson: visit to Antrim Council.
ENVIRONMENT Minister Sammy Wilson has confirmed that the scene he witnessed in Antrim in the wake of August's floods were 'among the worst'.
He made his comments at Antrim Civic Centre when he spoke of the devastation after he was grilled by local reps about what arrangements had been put in place to prevent future flooding on a similar scale.
Ulster Unionist Drew Ritchie said many councillors had been frustrated by a sense of 'utter helplessness' as the waters continued to rise.
“During the flooding people were calling me all the Saturday and into the next day," he recalled.
“I was speaking to the statutory agencies but I couldn't get any practical help for anyone. Effectively I was useless."
He added that a bad situation could have become even worse if Council Chief Executive David McCammick and his senior staff had not instigated the Emergency Plan which co-ordinated the relief efforts.
“It was very distressing watching the water creeping ever closer to people's homes," said Mr Ritchie. "Those people want to know if there have been any lessons learned."
The Minister said he had been struck by the scale of the devastation when he visited the town as the clean-up operation got under way.
“Some of the most distressing things I saw was when I visited Riverside in Antrim. Some houses were ruined and some had no insurance," he said.
There was some criticism of how the Department dealt with the deluge - but Mr Wilson believes, on balance, that it did a 'pretty good job'.
“You don't get credit for the things you stopped, only criticism for things you could not," he said.
“Obviously there were some things that could have been done better - things like stores for sandbags which were open and accessible.
“I want to pay particular credit to the councils. They were at the forefront and council facilities were used in very practical ways.
“Hopefully it won't happen to the same extent again, but if it does hopefully we will be ready for it."
