Counting the cost after Saturday"s flooding

Farmers and businesses around Westmeath are counting the costs after a long summer of wet days was topped by an all-day downpour on Saturday that left parts of the town and outlying areas flooded.The Hilamar Hotel in Kinnegad has sustained in the region of €60,000 worth of damage to its nightclub in the flooding and a number of other Kinnegad businesses have also been seriously affected.The floods hit hard all around Westmeath at the weekend when the torrential rain which started at around 9am on Saturday continued without respite through the afternoon and into the early evening, causing thousands of euros of damage as well as lost trading hours.According to statistics from the Met Office 12.5mm of rain fell between 9am and 10am alone and a total of 48mm poured down over the course of the day - the highest rainfall this summer so far.At the height of Saturday"s torrential rain, two Mullingar supermarkets were badly affected. Buckleys" staff were sweeping water away from the entrance, and leading customers in under umbrellas - but Tesco was so badly hit that it was forced to close its doors for over two hours in a bid to get rid of the water that had flooded the shop floor from front to back.Meanwhile, the Westmeath farming community is praying for sunshine as the harvesting clock ticks on. Westmeath IFA chairman Paddy Donnelly told the Westmeath Examiner that the next ten days will be a 'crucial' time for farmers hoping to get their ripened grain harvested and ready for sale.'A lot of areas of Westmeath have escaped relatively unscathed,' he said. 'Areas in and around Mullingar are not as bad as places in Offaly where some farming land is impassable to farm machinery. The rainfall has already eased off and we will all be hoping for a spell of dry days to get a good harvest.'Read more in this week's Westmeath Examiner