A man whose home was destroyed in this week’s floods in Inishowen has
pleaded with the authorities to come to his aid.
Darren Donaghey’s bungalow in the centre of Burnfoot village was flooded
with more than two feet of water on Tuesday evening.
Mr Donaghey was watching television when he began to hear the gullies
outside his home rattle.
Minutes later his entire home, which he has spent the past four years
renovating, was overcome with flood water.
An angry Mr Donaghey, whose father previously owned the Foot Inn Bar
next door to his home, says he has been left to fend for himself.
Today he went to the local social welfare office to seek
emergency funding and was given €150.
He fumed “What good is €150 to me? I only have the clothes on my back.
Everything I have made in the last few years I have put back into that
house.
The remains of the boundary wall at the front of Darren Donaghey’s home in Burnfoot. (North West Newspix)
“We were promised all sorts – skips, humidifiers, the lot. But I
haven’t seen any of that.
“What is stopping the council from coming around to our houses and
asking us directly what we need to help ourselves,” he said.
Mr Donaghey and two friends continued to sweep water from the bungalow
today.
Outside on the street lay the remains of all he owns in the world, a
water-drenched sofa, bits of furniture, lampshades, a microwave oven.
Darren revealed how he watched as one half of his seven foot boundary
wall caved in with the force of the water on the village’s main street
collapsed under the weight of water.
“Thankfully there was nobody under it or they would have been killed
or seriously hurt. It goes to show how powerful the water was.
“What I witnessed here on Tuesday night will live with me forever,” he said.
Darren said he will hopefully stay temporarily with his dad who lives Fahan.
Darren Donaghey inside his home. Picture by Donal Dunn
The other down side is that his children, who live with their mother
in Derry, cannot come and stay with him at weekends like they usually
do.
“My life has changed forever. I have spent every penny I have had on
this home and making a future for myself here.
“Now it’s gone and I just don’t know what I’m going to do. I keep
hearing that there is a fund for people like me but I have not seen
any of it yet,” he said.
Just one hundred yards to the rear of Darren’s house is the housing
estate of Lios Na Greine which was left devastated in the floods.
Almost every house on the small estate was hit by the cascading waters.
Liam Hegarty said he knew his family were in trouble when he saw the
level of waters in the village as he returned from taking his wife to
a driving lesson in Buncrana.
“I said to the wife ‘We’re in trouble here.’ I just knew it. When we
got to the house the water was already coming in and I put up sandbags
at the back door.
“But within minutes the place was under a huge amount of water.
“I had carried the two smaller kids out but as I did so, the planks of
wood from my wooden floor in my hallway were floating out onto the
street. It was chaos,” he said.
Liam’s oil tank was toppled over in his garden and his car was also
destroyed in the floods.
He met with Ministers Kevin Boxer Moran and Shane Ross on Wednesday night.
However, he spent yesterday along in his house trying to pick up the
pieces of the home he has spent 12 years paying a mortgage on.
He fears that the initial publicity of the freak incident will die
away and families like his will be forgotten.
“We were headline news and we were on TV when this happened but we’re
already becoming old news.
“I have been here all day cleaning up and nobody has called to me
apart from yourselves.
“I am insured and I desperately hope I am covered but there are so
many people around here who are not.
“Who is going to look after all those people?” he asked.
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