By Tommy Nethery
TYRONE farmers were this week counting the devastating financial cost of the weekend floods with one Ballygawley sheep producer having upwards on 60 ewes - a fifth of his flock- swept away without any trace by the cascading torrents.
Kenny Moore, a beef and sheep farmer, described the scene when he arrived at his lands adjacent to the Ballygawley Roundabout shortly after the unprecedented midday deluge on Saturday.
"Some of the ewes were marooned on small heights on the fields while other were standing to the belly in water," he said. "The water had got around behind some of the stock and it was obvious that they had been swept away by the fierce current of water at that stage.
"We had to drive the marooned sheep through the water to get them to safety; the water was rising that quickly that we didn't waste any time hanging about.
"It was the biggest flood in this area that I can remember and that goes for the previous generation as well. The gates and fences were all covered. I never saw the water as high.
Mr Moore said that a quick head count on Sunday indicated that between 50-60 ewes had been swept away following the torrential rain that wreaked havoc across the North.
"It's a devastating blow to lose so many livestock. It's a big financial hit and will take a fair bit to replace them."
Despite warnings of Saturday's unrelenting rainstorm that wiped out the entire sporting programme across the county, farmers and landowners simply weren't prepared for the magnitude and ferocity of torrential downpour.
Even if they had, there seems that there was little they could have done about it, as the heavens opened to chuck down a month's rainfall in a matter of hours.
Landslide
In one incident four miles outside Plumbridge a landslide on the side Corramore mountain sent tonnes of mud and debris crashing down a valley, tumbling a bridge and covering farmland for 30 or 40 metres either side of a small stream.
The slurry-like mix of mud and water skirted around a nearby farmyard taking with it a trailer and cement mixer.
A few miles away, the low lying lands around Newtownstewart were completely engulfed with mature potato crops in the holms around the town disappearing under the huge rapids racing down from the direction of Omagh and the Glenelly Valley.
Drew Hempton, who owns some of the lands that have been let in conacre to a local potato grower, said that although he had witnessed a bigger flood in Newtownstewart, he never saw one that hit the district with such venom.
"Everyone was caught on the hop," he said. "A 10-acre field beside the Major's Walls was covered as was a neighbouring field. Luckily the floods drained away in a matter of hours, so hopefully the crops will be all right. They would need to be given the cost of planting and fertiliser etc."
Although the sale at Newtownstewart Livestock Mart was over by the time the water starting rising with such gusto, cattle still standing in the sale yard had to be moved to higher ground before collection.
It wasn't all doom and gloom though. Fintona farmer Adrian Mullan had four store heifers swept away in the floods but one Tuesday they turned up alive and well on a neighbouring farm a mile down river.
