"It's not rocket science"

THE Six Mile Water was at its third highest recorded level in over 50 years during Storm Chandra, a meeting has heard - and residents along the banks of the river have called for ‘more action and less blame’ before the next flooding incident.

And it’s been revealed that some residents will not be able to return to their deluged homes for up to six months.

Riverside and Massereene Streets Residents’ Association (RAMS) last week opened their gathering at All Saint Parish Hall to elected representatives, council staff, the Department for Infrastructure, NI Water and people living in areas like Meadowside, Dunadry and Muckamore, who were also hit by flooding a fortnight ago.

South Antrim MLAs Trevor Clarke and Pam Cameron (DUP) and John Blair (Alliance) were in attendance, along with Antrim Town Councillors Neil Kelly (Alliance) Roisin Lynch (SDLP) and Paul Dunlop (DUP) as well as Dunsilly Sinn Fein rep Annie O’Lone and party officer and former councillor Noel Maguire.

South Antrim UUP MP Robin Swann was represented by party official Stephen Nicholl.

The Vicar of Antrim Dr Stephen McBride opened the meeting, saying that the incident was ‘a scary thing to see’, while RAMS Chair Joanne Elder gave some background about the group and then outlined concerns about a slow response from agencies as water gushed into homes across Antrim. She said that people had suffered ‘property damage and severe trauma’.

The meeting then broke into small groups and brainstormed what they would like to see before, during and after flooding incidents.

David Letherman, whose house on Riverside was flooded, began ringing for help before 9am on Tuesday January 27th, when the Six Mile Water approached the dangerous height of 16m. David and his husband Jim Cunningham were later evacuated on a dinghy by the fire service.

Sandbags did not arrive until 11.30am, a vehicle to transport them through the flood an hour later, a small diesel generated pump was deployed just after 1pm and a large siphoning tank did not arrive until 4pm and worked for 12 hours at the site.

Richard Ayton from DfI Roads said that this had to be ‘pulled off’ another site in Lisburn and that ‘everywhere was getting bombarded’. Similar vehicles were later deployed to Meadowside that evening.

It was also revealed that a pumping station in Meadowside failed when the control panel was flooded with water.

Councillor Lynch said that some sort of action plan and alert scheme was needed. John Blair said that when his office staff were trying to secure help for desperate residents, they were being asked for exact postcodes before the call could proceed.

He said: “When water is entering homes, there is no time for ‘Computer Says No’.”

Trevor Clarke noted: “There are a lot of agencies in the room. The council is not here and they should be here. Can they not try to get an emergency plan and pull that together?”

And Councillor Dunlop added: “It’s not rocket science, the same thing is happening again and again and it shouldn’t be happening. I was standing at Riverside from 10am to 4pm on the phone. Everyone should be clear on what their role is. The learning is zero.

“We hear that DfI have issues with staffing and had to be across multiple areas, we get that, but something failed, as far back as Dunadry, Meadowside hasn’t flooded for years, we need engineers to start looking at that.”

Trevor Clarke said that there was confusion over who was responsible for what, including sandbags and road closures.

“I am disappointed that council representatives are not here. What is the point of the protocol of bringing stuff in when the road gets to a certain height. It is time people got their act together. There is no point in having a protocol if it is not carried out in time.” he said.

Mr Nicholl also questioned why council was not at the meeting and said staff needed to be involved.

John Blair asked why there was not sufficient equipment in the Northern division if tanks had to be redeployed from another area.

Pam Cameron noted that there were ‘three MLAs in the room’ who worked well together, and that it had been a ‘good meeting’. She agreed that ‘absolutely, council should have been here’. Both she and Mr Blair have tabled questions to the Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins about flood alleviation and mitigation in Antrim town on Monday, while Mr Clarke is set to question DAERA officials on the ‘lack of preparedness’.

Sinn Fein MLA Declan Kearney has also written to the minister to follow up after he accompanied her on her visit to Riverside last week.

And the Northern Ireland Assembly has formally accepted a motion brought forward by UUP MLA Steve Aiken regarding persistent flooding concerns along the Six Mile Water. The motion has been scheduled for debate on 17 February.

See more on Page 2 and 3