Heavy rain across NI causes transport disruption

There was some traffic disruption across Northern Ireland as a yellow weather warning for heavy rain was in place on Friday.

Rainfall of 10-25mm was expected widely across Northern Ireland, with local totals of 40-60mm on higher ground, especially around the Mourne Mountains.

Rail services between Belfast and Dublin have been disrupted with a reduced timetable as part of the line was flooded.

In its warning for rain, which was in place until 18:00 GMT, the Met Office said spray and flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closures.

It said there was also 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.

On Thursday, the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) said 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 have been failures we will react quickly to that," said the department's Gary Quinn.

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".

Quinn said the concern in relation to Friday's warning was in Portadown with water levels high both in Lough Neagh and 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.

However, speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme, local Sinn Féin councillor Clare McConville-Walker said she was in one of the "worst affected areas and the water has subsided a great deal".

"I think the worry today was that heavy rain forecast would exacerbate the situation and that hasn't actually been the case," she said.

"I think, without tempting faith, we are looking like we are getting back to normal. There's quite a lot of localised flooding in terms of the fields, because where I am right now is quite close to the River Bann but the levels do seem to be going down, which is very, very reassuring."

In the Republic of Ireland there is flooding in Kilkenny and in the south east of the country, the River Nore and River Barrow have both burst their banks.

A Wexford County Council spokesperson has said water levels in Enniscorthy are "rising steadily" and areas of the town have flooded.

The council is advising affected residents to evacuate early.

A rain warning was issued for counties Dublin, Carlow, Kilkenny, Louth, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow from 12:00 local time on Friday until midnight.

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