Hurricaine brought worst weather in living memory

AT LEAST six people died, more than a thousand had to be evacuated from their homes and roads in Dublin 4 resembled rivers in the monsoon season when Hurricane Charlie hit Ireland on a Monday morning 10 years ago.

A mother and her five year old daughter were among the first casualties, drowned in the Liffey near Dublin's North Wall Quay. An elderly man died of a heart attack while being carried from his flooded home in Ballsbridge, and the body of another man was taken from the Dodder in nearby Irishtown.

A 21 year old canoeist was drowned in the Nire in Co Waterford and a workman laying sewage pipes in Newry, Co Down died when a trench collapsed on him.

Houses in Bray were flooded to a height of seven feet when the Dargle burst its banks, and hundreds of people were evacuated 81 years to the day after a similar disaster hit the Co Wicklow town.

More than a hundred, mostly elderly, people had to be rescued from their homes in Ballsbridge as the Dodder flooded. There were also evacuations on Ballyboden Road in Dublin, where the Owendoher burst its banks, and in Duleek, Co Meath, where the Nanny flooded a housing estate.

Sandymount Avenue in Dublin 4 was under several feet of water, and a Garda diver in wet suit and flippers was seen swimming down it to check on the well being of residents.

Hundreds of boats moored along the east coast were wrecked by the storm, smashed against piers or sinking from the weight of water on board. A member of the Motor Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire said the harbour looked like the inside of a "concrete mixer" at the height of the storm and members could only look on as the boats were destroyed.

There was extensive damage to the famous Mount Usher Gardens in Ashford, Co Wicklow, two thirds of which were submerged as the Vartry overflowed. About £140,000 worth of salmon and trout were swept away from four fish farms in Co Wicklow, as the Aughrim river burst its banks.

Some 25,000 homes lost electricity as winds and falling trees brought down power lines. Dublin, Kildare and Meath were the worst affected.

The then Taoiseach, Dr Garret FitzGerald, cut short his holiday in Cyprus for an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the crisis. The then PRO for Dublin Corporation came under heavy criticism for a reported remark that those who chose to live beside a river must expect to, "get their feet wet every 50 years".