Thousands of acres of farmland left under water following severe weather in the west of Ireland.
Torrential rain and winds of up to seventy miles an hour have pounded Ireland's westerly coasts. Farmers say they are bearing the brunt of the hardship such inclement weather brings.
County Galway is at the height of the lambing season, and the unseasonably bad weather means that farmers cannot risk letting ewes and lambs out, as John Martyn from Headford explains,
They can't let out the young lambs. And if they let them out they'll get pneumonia.
Padraic Gannon from Corrandulla believes that farmers will suffer losses as a result.
It's a complete change of the weather pattern entirely.
Farmers accept there is no easy solution to this kind of flooding, but they insist the government must continue to try to find ways of alleviating the situation.
Galway Corporation workers were this afternoon busy delivering sandbags to businesses in the city which is on flood alert tonight. A high tide and strong winds are forecast, which could result in flooding in the early hours of the morning.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 27 February 2002. The reporter is Jim Fahy.
