By Conor Sharkey
WHEN Strabane's flood defences disintegrated in 1987, councillor Ivan Barr was affected more than most - firstly he and his family were living on Bridge Street which was devastated by the waters and secondly he was central to the political wranglings that followed.
So it is inevitable that his memories of that fateful night are as clear today as they were 20 years ago.
"My greatest memory of that night was when the wall actually burst. I was at home on the Bridge End and it was shortly after 2am. Two journalists came knocking on my door looking to phone their offices to report that the wall was leaking down at Christy's car park.
I had been down to the spot earlier in the evening and people were gathered around telling each other that the wall was going to burst. I thought to myself, well what are you all standing here for then? But as one of the reporters was on the phone in my house, there was a massive bang. I honestly thought a bomb had gone off, but it emerged a short time later that the wall had given way," he explained.
At about 5am, Mr Barr joined Councillor James O'Kane and other council officials to launch an emergency plan of action.
"There were three locations under water at this point. The town centre was in bad shape. Bridge Street was flooded because one of the banks of the Finn had burst sending water up through what was known then as The Dry Arch and into the Meadow football pitches. And the bottom of the Ballycolman Estate where the water was coming up through the sewers.
"One of the most unique situations in 1987 was that The Troubles were still at a high, but it was the first time that I witnessed the military and the RUC mucking in with the public. It was unheard of back then for them to be mixing with the community without opposition. It was a very impressive community response by everyone," he said.
Recalling just how unprepared Strabane was, and according to him, still is, for such a catastrophe, Mr Barr continued: "This had never happened in the town centre before, but in so far as Bridge Street is concerned, flooding was fairly periodical.
There was very little preparedness, no sandbags or equipment for making sandbags. In the months following the flood there was an inquest into how it happened and what how it could be prevented in the future. But 20 years have passed and not much has changed," he said.
Like many, the government's response to Strabane's plight still lies uneasily with Mr Barr.
"At the time, Secretary of State Tom King and Environment Minister Richard Needham said what happened here was an act of God. The business people of the town found this hard to accept as there was pictorial evidence of water seeping through the wall in several places.
"They also said that in terms of insurable risk, people should have been prepared via home insurance. They did allow a small sum of money to be paid to those on income support. Anyone not on income support but on different benefits were given repayable loans. In some cases, up until last year, there were still people getting letters threatening legal action if they don't pay back what they owed from their flood loans. During the lifetime of the last Assembly we advised people not to bother paying the loans back, but in more recent times we have been informed that to scrap the repayments would mean having to change legislation.
Twenty years on people are still being harrassed for a very paltry sum. In 1987, the people of Strabane were fed some very pious words. Those words didn't come to much," Mr Barr said.
WHILE the waters from the 1987 flood may have subsided after a matter of days, the political waves would roll on for many years.
The man responsible for addressing the political fallout and who would eventually take a compensation campaign to Downing Street was Chairman of the Council at the time, James O'Kane.
Speaking to the Strabane Chronicle 20 years on, councillor O'Kane said the government response to the plight of those caught up in the disaster still strikes an uneasy chord with him today.
Reliving the biggest test in his long political history, Mr O'Kane said: "I got a call at around 2.30am from the Chief Executive of the council John McKinney who told me the wall had given way down around Christy's car park. I headed out to council offices at around 4.30am where I met councillor Ivan Barr and we started to get things organised.
"The town was in an awful state. On Main Street, Market Street and Railway Street, cars were submerged. It was just mayhem," he explained.
A short time later it was decided that helicopters should be drafted in from Ballykelly, however, as councillor O'Kane explained, help was already at hand in St Pat's Hall.
"As morning broke, the RUC and the British Army were involved. Social Services had begun to provide soup and sandwiches and accommodation at St Pat's Hall for those made homeless.
"Around the same time, then Parish Priest Oliver Crilly formed a separate committee to deal with the distribution of the money. As the waters began to subside in the days after October 22 and a clean up operation got under way, the political battle for compensation began in earnest.
"Financial assistance was sourced from the government, however it was in the form of loans, somewhere in the region of £1,000 per household, which had to be paid back.
"Because of this lack of response, we decided to seek a meeting with government and seek advice on our legal bid for grants. During a follow up meeting in Pat Gillespie's house on the Railway Road, it was decided that a delegation including myself, Danny McSorley, Thomas Kerrigan, Ivan Barr, Edward Turner and Peggy McManus should travel to Westminister.
"We went to Downing Street where we handed in a petition, before heading to the House of Commons to lobby MP's. I also had a meeting with Tom King which lasted well over an hour. He told me again there was no meat on the bone for compensation and that what had happened to the town was an act of God.
"A legal challenge was established and myself, Jim McDaid, Pat Gillespie and Danny Kelly took our fight to the High Court. We were represented by the now Justice Gillen in a case that lasted six days. The delegation along with Roads Service and Department of Agriculture representatives had to give evidence, but in the end up it was ruled that because we had been making adjustments to our flood defences at the time they collapsed, no compensation could be handed out.
"The rest is history I suppose and there is still people in the town today paying back their flood loans. I still think the government should scrap the repayments being made by the people of Strabane."
