Posted online: Feb 17th, 2011

By Ursula Duddy

Reporter

A 72 year-old woman has been commended for raising the alarm after a burst water pipe caused extensive damage to eight homes in Derry.

A number of pensioners, a pregnant woman and young children were among around 25 people who had to be evacuated from their homes in Lincoln Courts due to the flooding which happened at around 3am on Tuesday.

Alana Nutt, daughter of 72 year-old Betty Stewart, described how her mother alerted her neighbours to the incident.

“The noise of next-door’s oil tank getting knocked over with the force of the water woke her up,” she said.

“When she came downstairs she stepped in water then when she opened the front door she saw it was pouring out of everyone’s doors into their gardens so she went and got everyone up.”

Alison Gillam said she was awoken by her next-door neighbour, Mrs Stewart, at 3am.

“When we got to the bottom step there was freezing water everywhere and I couldn’t get the front door open because of the pressure of it,” she said.

“We had water just flowing through for two hours, from 3am to 5am. The whole eight houses were affected and because we’re on a slope, it just poured down and kept rising, it had no release, so we just had to open our front and back doors to let it out. The minute I opened the door, shoes and everything were flying out past us, things that were in the kitchen were flowing out past us; we found my daughter’s handbag in the garden and the next door neighbour found their daughter’s schoolbag down in the middle of the road. It was just like a river going through our house.

“The Fire Brigade were exceptional; they managed to get the water turned off for us and they pumped it out.”

DUP Alderman Drew Thompson was on the scene with the residents from the early hours of Tuesday morning.

“It took Water Service about an hour to get it turned off so it was a mess; the Fire Service pumped the water out but it’s a nightmare,” he said.

“It was an elderly person of 72 that went knocking doors when she realised what was happening and people thought all kinds of things were happening.”

Alderman Thompson said a large crack in a water mains pipe had caused the incident.

“I wouldn’t like to think how long it’s going to take to get those houses dried out,” he said.

“All the burners are out; the Housing Executive is getting theirs back on now but it’s going to take weeks and some people can’t even get the floors and carpets lifted until the insurance companies get here. It’s an absolute nightmare for the residents.”

SDLP Councillor Martin O’Reilly: “There’s been substantial damage caused to the houses here but I’m glad to see the Housing Executive here quite soon, getting people housed and getting the properties fixed again.

 “We have to pay tribute to the elderly lady in her 70s who raised the alerted people. Had it not been for her swift actions there would have been a lot more damage done so all credit to her, had she not run up and down the street, letting people know it could have been even worse.”