Flood victims 'will be out of homes for months'

Sandbags were delivered to the affected houses but the damage was already done

Residents whose homes were flooded by a burst water main in Londonderry say it could be months before they can move back in.

They have also accused NI Water of being slow to respond to the incident at Ballyarnett Road in the Belmont estate on Thursday.

Noel McMonagle, whose home was one of six flooded, described the response of the government-owned water company as "diabolical".

NI Water said its engineers were on the scene just over half an hour after the alert was raised and spent hours repairing the burst; its priority was homeowners.

Residents are still out of their homes after a burst water main caused flooding in the Belmont estate

Mr McMonagle, 63, said it would take him and his neighbours a long time to recover from the incident and that they would have been lost without the intervention of community volunteers who brought sandbags.

"The water was right through, burst through the concrete on the drive," he told BBC News NI, "and it was flooded right into the houses.

"We had no help whatsoever from NI Water at this stage.

"Still, this water was running and NI Water had no explanation when they arrived, no communication with us and eventually three hours or more later, we got the mains turned off.

"A burst main's a burst main and that happens but the response was diabolical."

Noel McMonagle standing beside the burst water main which caused the flood damage

For the elderly couple who live next door, it was a particularly traumatic experience.

Their son Eddie Melaugh said his father, 76, struggled to understand what was happening as he has dementia and he had to carry him through the water to safety.

His mother is blind so she, too, found it very difficult to understand what was happening in her own home.

Again, he was critical of NI Water.

Eddie Melaugh said he had to carry his elderly father, who has dementia, to safety after the flooding

Elderly mother 'in bits'

"They took too long to sort the problem out, to turn the water off," he said.

"My mother's in bits. She's just distraught. She hasn't stopped crying. Everything was brand new in the house and it's all ruined.

"We had to lift my daddy out. He's not mobile at all so we had to piggyback him out.

"He was in a bad way. He didn't know where he was or what was happening. This'll hurt him more than anything else, getting moved out of his home comforts.

Sandbags are placed at one of the front door of one of the houses

'We were in crisis'

Chris Kerr lives on the same row with his wife and six-year-old daughter.

He said community volunteers from nearby Shantallow "literally waded in to help us" but the response of NI Water was "totally inadequate".

"There was chaos," he said. "Nobody knew what to do, nobody knew who to speak to or turn to.

"We were in crisis and there was no response.

"The personal upheaval's massive and it will take its toll.

Chris Kerr's kitchen the day after his home was flooded

NI Water said a burst main on such a scale was rare, but when it happened it could be "shocking to witness".

A spokesperson said: "The sheer volume of water from a pipe this size means as much as 110 litres of water per second could potentially have been flowing toward the properties at speed, and unfortunately at a pace that could not be stopped.

"“When we received the first calls from customers, at 9.57am, our teams were placed on emergency response and diverted from other areas in the city to arrive at the scene by 10:30am."

Their immediate priority, said the spokesperson, was to assess the situation, identify where the nearest valve was located which would stop the flow of water, get to it and shut it off.

" The valves were located approximately half a mile away from the actual burst; they were attended to by two teams and all fully shut down by 12:05 BST."