Residents of a housing estate in Newtownards, Co Down are in with temporary living arrangements after they were evacuated due to the discovery of what is believed to be a large, unexploded World War II bomb.
Stephie O'Fee, a resident of the Rivenwood housing development, said that she first noticed something strange on Friday as she saw police cars sitting outside all day before large army trucks arrived.
"We didn’t hear anything at all officially until Saturday evening when the police arrived at the door. We were told at 8pm that we had to evacuate before 10am on Sunday morning, it was all quite a shock," she said.
Speaking on RTÉ News at One, she said that initially she did not have anywhere to go and had to find somewhere to go for herself and her two cats.
"It took me a while to find somewhere for my cats to go, thankfully temporarily they are homed for now. It has all been very chaotic," she added.
She explained that she was starting a new job today and so it was not an ideal time.
Ms O'Fee said there has not been a lot of communication from authorities.
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Homes evacuated as WWII bomb to be deactivated in Co Down
"It has all been very fast paced trying to problem solve and manage the situation as best as possible, whilst not knowing a great deal of information.
"We didn’t know how we should secure our houses and minimise any damage that there may be.
"I live very close to where the device has been found, so I just hope I have a standing home to go to after this."
She said that the professionals will do the best they can to minimise the damage but it is still very much unknown.
In terms of how long this will last, there has been no further update since Saturday evening as of yet.
"It could be longer, we just don’t know. Everyone is in the dark with various things. We are just having to hope for the best. Let's hope there’s not too much damage."
Northern Ireland Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said that although the official line from authorities is that it could take five days to safely clear the bomb, there are concerns that this process could take longer.
"These residents are in shock, nobody expected this phase of the development to reveal a very large German bomb from the second world war and this has led to a lot of uncertainty," he said.
He added that the local council was pulling out all the stops in opening a leisure centre for people, with an area where pets can remain for the duration.
He said that residents were very lucky that the digger driver who discovered the suspected device was experienced and knew what it was.
"The experts are there and they are going to take their time to do their very best to make sure that this is a controlled explosion and minimum damage is caused to the houses in that vicinity."
