FORMER Fermanagh Councillor, Jean McVitty, who lives in Lisnaskea and works in Enniskillen, cannot get into her own home due to flooding of the access road to her home along the Colebrooke River in Upper Lough Erne.

Yesterday, having spoken the day before of the family's plight in having to throw milk down the drain from their dairy herd because milk collection tankers cannot get near the farm, she rang the Herald to report that the flood waters had risen by a foot overnight.

"I came out this morning and, only for the skill of my husband driving the tractor, it really was very dangerous. I can't get back in again and I have been told to stay in town. We are completely isolated, and we're not the only ones.

"There is no milk tanker and the milk is going down the drain, we can't get the meal in, or the post, you name it. It's a complete nightmare.

"It's only someone who is connected with farming knows the score because you have still to see to the animals. This morning, we waited for daylight to venture out in the tractor and my husband said the road seemed to be collapsing under the water. As well as that, the road and the river are at the same level, so there's the fear of driving into the river.

"It's really dangerous. There is so much risk. The flood waters have risen a foot from yesterday (Monday), and there's no sign of any ease at all."

Mrs McVitty said that the dam at Ballyshannon was of limited help in that it can only spill two inches of water every 24 hours, yet Lough Erne was four feet above the normal level.

"So, even if we had dry weather, you can work out how long it will take for the lake to go down. On top of that, the forecast for more bad weather was not good."

She suggested that the abandonment of maintenance schemes on rivers feeding into the lake, several years ago, was a mistake.