ALMOST 700 ferry passengers were marooned in Dublin Bay and off Holyhead all day yesterday and into last night as gale force winds and high seas prevented landings on both sides of the Irish Sea.
The eastern seaboard - particularly Dublin - took a battering as north-east winds lashed the coast, driving two inches of rain onto a surprised public.
Motor traffic ground to a crawl in Dublin as floods and fallen trees blocked roads, traffic lights failed and everyone who owned a car seemed to take it out rather than brave the elements by public transport or bicycle.
AA Roadwatch described the city centre as "chaotic".
Ferry services are expected to be back to normal today in a calmer Irish Sea. But Stena passengers were last night still waiting for winds to die down after being on board the vessel since about 4 a.m. yesterday. The passengers were expected to disembark at Holyhead at 6 a.m. today.
A Stena Line spokesman said the high-speed ferry, the HSS Explorer, was unable to berth at Dun Laoghaire. It returned to Holyhead, from where it had sailed at 4.10 a.m. with its 175 passengers. But it suffered what was described as a "bump" when it tried to berth. The spokesman said damage was superficial.
The vessel then docked at a refitting berth but passengers were forced to stay on board because that berth has no landing facilities.
The Irish Ferries vessel, Isle of Inisfree, with 500 passengers on board, berthed in Dublin late last night, about 18 hours after its 4.30 a.m. departure from Holyhead. The vessel spent the day in Dublin Bay, unable to berth because of the wind. In Rosslare a ferry had to remain in port.
Other scheduled ferry sailings were cancelled as a result, but the Stena Line Belfast-Stranraer ferry continued operations.
During the worst of the weather the Air Corps airlifted a Polish crewman from an English-registered cargo ship, Merchant Brilliant, about 20 miles off Howth.
The man, in his 30s, had suffered a suspected hip and leg fracture. He was flown by the Baldonnel-based crew to Dublin Airport and transferred to Beaumont Hospital.
DART services were largely unaffected by the weather. Iarnrod Eireann said a 10-minute delay at Merrion Gates, between Booterstown and Sydney Parade, at
8.30 a.m., was caused by the wind blowing the road barrier onto an overhead wire.
Tallaght was the worst affected area, with three feet of water on a section of the Old Bawn Road. Several cars were abandoned after their owners failed to negotiate the deluge.
All main roads into the city were affected and congestion was acute, Mr Conor Faughnan of the AA said. He added that there were "dozens and dozens" of minor accidents.
Over 40 road sections were blocked by fallen trees.
The western toll bridge was closed to commercial, high-sided vehicles. "They exited at the Palmerstown interchange and came in through Chapelizod and because of that, Chapelizod was an absolute nightmare. In my memory it is the worst it has ever been," Mr Faughnan said.
The President, Mrs Robinson cancelled a trip by helicopter to Cork, where she had three scheduled stops.
But she did attend the funeral of the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad Liam Naughten, in Co Roscommon, travelling by car instead of helicopter.
A Dublin Fire Brigade spokesman said three units were called out to pump flood water at Kilbarrack Road, and smaller pumping operations were carried out in Tallaght and Fairview.
ESB staff dealt with power cuts throughout the day, with 4,000 customers left without power for four hours in parts of Drimnagh Walkinstown, Inchicore and Long Mile Road. A spokesman said the power failure was caused by two underground cables being flooded.
In Ballyfermot a tree fell on a low voltage line on Lough Conn Road, affecting a small number of householders. Isolated power cuts kept repair crews busy throughout the day.
One early casualty of the weather was an 11,731 tonne Israeli-registered container vessel, City of Salerno, which was driven onto a sandbank in Dublin Bay and was towed off by two tugs. A lifeboat was on standby but the incident was "not very serious", according to the Marine Rescue Service.