Minister Michelle O'Neill reassured local communities that engineers in Rivers Agency have been working tirelessly to mitigate the risk to homes and businesses.
She said: "I can only imagine the distress experienced by the people in Newry and other parts of the north affected by the flooding.
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"The amount of rain we have seen over the past few days has been the worst we have seen for some time and the problem has been that it has been so persistent that there has been little or no respite to allow infrastructure to recover.
"I have been in constant touch with staff in Rivers Agency throughout these past number of days and what I can say is that if it hadn't been for the amount of preparatory work they had undertaken, in conjunction with partner organisations, things across the north could have been much worse.
"My staff have been working round the clock to make sure that people in vulnerable areas have been protected as much as possible given the weather conditions we have experienced."
(CD/JP)
