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18/08/2008
Floods Chaos On Roads
In was 'all hands to the pumps' at the weekend as an emergency Stormont meeting was held over Saturday's disastrous floods.
There was no sign of political enmity either as Sinn Fein's Regional Development Minister, Conor Murphy, (pictured, inset) and the DUP's Environment Minister, Sammy Wilson, (main photograph) hosted the emergency talks at Stormont Castle.
They had plenty to talk about too, as in Belfast alone there were major problems to contend with as part of the Westlink remained submerged in 20 feet of water, threatening rush hour chaos on the Monday morning return to work.
The Broadway underpass on the Westlink - only opened a few weeks ago - was under an estimated 20 million gallons of water.
The NI Roads Service said the underpass would probably not be open on Monday with contingency plans being put in place.
It was also confirmed that at least five cars are thought to be under the flood water as motorists were forced to abandon them as the water rose.
On Sunday, the fire service said they were managing to reduce the water level by about six inches every hour.
But a spokesman warned that it could take 24 hours to get the water out of the underpass and that was not allowing for more rain.
He said the service was pumping 7,000 litres of water per minute from the road.
Meanwhile, dozens of homes across Northern Ireland were flooded and more than 1,000 calls were made to the emergency services, within a few hours.
The Fire and Rescue Service's spokesman, Gordon Latimer, said: "We were stretched to the limit for several hours on Saturday."
(BMcC)
There was no sign of political enmity either as Sinn Fein's Regional Development Minister, Conor Murphy, (pictured, inset) and the DUP's Environment Minister, Sammy Wilson, (main photograph) hosted the emergency talks at Stormont Castle.
They had plenty to talk about too, as in Belfast alone there were major problems to contend with as part of the Westlink remained submerged in 20 feet of water, threatening rush hour chaos on the Monday morning return to work.
The Broadway underpass on the Westlink - only opened a few weeks ago - was under an estimated 20 million gallons of water.
The NI Roads Service said the underpass would probably not be open on Monday with contingency plans being put in place.
It was also confirmed that at least five cars are thought to be under the flood water as motorists were forced to abandon them as the water rose.
On Sunday, the fire service said they were managing to reduce the water level by about six inches every hour.
But a spokesman warned that it could take 24 hours to get the water out of the underpass and that was not allowing for more rain.
He said the service was pumping 7,000 litres of water per minute from the road.
Meanwhile, dozens of homes across Northern Ireland were flooded and more than 1,000 calls were made to the emergency services, within a few hours.
The Fire and Rescue Service's spokesman, Gordon Latimer, said: "We were stretched to the limit for several hours on Saturday."
(BMcC)
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Northern Ireland WeatherThis Evening and Tonight:West to northwest gale force winds, severe along the north coast, will continue overnight. Frequent showers persist, merging into longer periods of rain at times and turning wintry. Minimum temperature 1 °C.
