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NIALL Huggard has a clear, calm image in his head, captured before dawn in his 19th-century, family-run Kerry hotel. “It was dry, the air was really crisp and cold and all I could see were the stars above. Red deer were swimming through the car park, and the water levels around us were rising like a scene from Titanic. Lough Leane was moving towards our doors, and I had 110 guests sleeping upstairs who were oblivious to everything.”, writes LORNA SIGGINS, Western Correspondent

 His night staff had called him in at 3am on Friday, November 20th, after the torrential rain of previous days, when waterfalls appeared where he had never seen them before on Mangerton, Torc and Purple mountains. He phoned a JCB driver, got a truck and trailer, rolled up his sleeves with the men and started filling sandbags in the dark.