Wall collapse saved woman’s home from storm water

But for the fact that a boundary wall collapsed under the force of the storm water, Mrs Dorothy Hunter’s Ballyrickard home would have been inundated.

Her son, David, explained: “My mother’s house is at the Ballyrickard Road-Mounthill Road junction and there was water running down the roads in to the property.

“We were very lucky that her home wasn’t flooded and the only thing that prevented it was that when the water reached about two feet high it breached the boundary wall - which had stood since it was built around the Ballyrickard Public School in the 1800s. That allowed the water that had been back up to get away, but it was a very close thing and my mother, who is in her late seventies, was left feeling quite traumatised.”

One local man reckons Friday’s deluge was the worst seen at Ballyrickard in 80 years. “Nobody had ever seen anything like it,” said David.

However, he has contacted Roads Service about a blocked drain which he believes was a contributing factor to the flooding outside his mother’s home.

“I think if that drain had been cleaned out at the end of the summer, this might have been prevented,” he said.

Storm water was diverted from other properties in the area by means of sand bags.