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Weather warning for heavy rain comes into effect in NI

News imagePacemaker A lorry drives through a flooded road in County Antrim with spray coming up on either side of itPacemaker
Flooding affected parts of Northern Ireland during Storm Chandra on Tuesday

A yellow weather warning for heavy rain has begun and is set to last until 18:00 GMT on Friday.

Rainfall of 10-25mm is expected widely across Northern Ireland in this period but locally totals of 40-60 mm could fall on higher ground, especially around the Mourne Mountains.

Winds will also strengthen as the weather system moves in across the island of Ireland on Thursday night, but will not be as extreme as the stormy conditions associated with Chandra.

Peak gusts of 81mph were measured at both Orlock Head on the County Down coast and Malin Head on the northern Donegal coast.

The Met office is warning that spray and flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closures and that bus and train services could be affected with journey times taking longer with some cancellations possible.

It says there is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded, causing damage to some buildings and a slight chance of power cuts and loss of other services to some homes and businesses

A rain warning has also been issued for counties Dublin, Carlow, Kilkenny, Louth, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow from 09:00 local time on Friday until midnight.

News imageDavid Letherman David Letherman and Jim Cunningham pose in a selfie taken by Letherman, who is at the front wearing a black jacket. Cunningham is behind him with his hands on Letherman's shoulders. He is wearing an orange padded jacket and grey scarf. Both men are bald, Letherman has a short grey beard. They are standing in a country lane with hedgerows and trees on each side.David Letherman
David Letherman and Jim Cunningham were trapped in their home in Antrim by rising floodwater

On Thursday, the Department for Infrastructure said that dealing with a large area of flooding during Tuesday's Storm Chandra caused delays and communication issues in dealing with it in Antrim.

A married couple had been trapped in their home due to floodwater in the Riverside area and were not rescued for many hours after contacting the DfI.

"We appreciate that there were delays... communication issues. It will be reviewed and if there has been failures we will react quickly to that," said the department's Gary Quinn.

More flooding is anticipated as another yellow weather warning has been issued by the Met Office for rain across all of Northern Ireland.

Quinn said concerns for the new warning are "in Portadown, Lough Neagh levels are very high, as is Lough Erne.

"We are trying to mitigate the flooding impacts, we are continually learning and we feed that into the cycle of improvement," he added.

News imageRiverside area road is flooded, people in high-vis carry sandbags to doors and by the river bridge.
The DfI say there were 600 calls about flooding made to the department on Tuesday during Storm Chandra, including the Riverside area.

David Letherman said he and his husband Jim Cunningham had been calling the authorities for help all day on Tuesday as they watched the water level rise in their home in the Riverside area of Antrim.

"The fridge was floating, the freezer was floating in the kitchen," Letherman said, adding that the downstairs of their property was now "totally wrecked".

The couple were rescued by firefighters on Tuesday evening.

Speaking to BBC's Good Morning Ulster, Quinn said the DfI "don't want to see homes flooded we work hard to prevent that... what happened in Riverside is not reflective of the departments approach to over a thousand calls across roads and rivers, we had about 600 flooding incidents".

He added that DfI workers arrived at Riverside "early" and "provided sandbags to fill a breach on the flood defence" but there seemed to be "some delays about actual pumping (of water) on that site... it was difficult".

News imageMatt Crockett An aerial view of land around Brackagh bog, south of Portadown, on Wednesday morning. Fields and woodland appear to be under water after nearby waterways flooded. The train track which skirts around the wooded area is partially submerged. Matt Crockett
The railway line was partially flooded close to Brackagh bog, south of Portadown on Tuesday

Emergency contacts

To report faults or emergencies you should contact:

  • Flooding Incident Line: 0300 2000 100
  • NI Water: 03457 44 00 88 or visit niwater.com
  • NIE Networks: 03457 643 643 or visit nienetworks.co.uk
  • Northern Ireland Housing Executive: 03448 920 901
  • Openreach: 08000 232 023
  • Gas networks: 0800 002 001