On Saturday 16th August 2008, Northern Ireland recorded nearly a month’s rainfall in one day. In a typical summer’s August this may not have caused any problems, however as the summer leading up to this day, had, shall we say, been rather wet, problems were inevitable.
You could not have imagined even if you had tried the consequences that unfolded during that afternoon. The recently completed underpass on the West link in Belfast filled up with water, the water overflowing the top of the safety walls, some 20 or so feet from the bottom of the submerged road below. 20 million gallons of water had filled the underpass, it was reported cars had been abanonded in the underpass as driver’s could not escape the torrent of water heading their way. It took 2 days for the fire brigade pump out the water.
The reason behind this particular flooding was that a nearby river burst its banks and caused a deluge of water to head towards the underpass. A once in a life time event.
Many parts of Northern Ireland were affected by the worse flooding in living memory. In Portadown the River Bann burst its banks and the flood planes rapidly contained the water and in many cases with only inches to go before it would have overflowed into surrounding residential areas.
Here is a picture showing the extent of the flooding across the meadows - it was taken from the access road down to Portadown rowing club.
Image Reproduced courtesy of Elevated Aspects Aerial Photography
Portadown golf club was also badly hit by the flooding and a number of the greens and fairways were under several feet of water.
It took about 4-5 days for the flood plains to drain back into the river. Hopefully there will not be another flood as large as that for many years to come.