As the clean-up continued in north-west Mayo yesterday after landslides which ripped up roads, damaged bridges and devastated a graveyard, Mayo County Council did not rule out the possibility of evacuating more people from their homes in the coming days.
Mayo county secretary, Mr John Condon, explained that if conditions on Dooncarton Mountain, which overlooks the sea at Pollathomas and Glengad, had not stabilised sufficiently by today, a geologist would be employed to advise on the possibility of further land slippages.
Further rain yesterday, following Friday night's two-hour deluge of hailstones and rain, added to fears of further slippage on the mountain - it is a local landmark due to the presence of a dome-shaped radar installation on its summit for transatlantic aircraft.
All main roads in the area were passable yesterday following emergency repairs. A number of people, including a woman in her 90s, were evacuated by the emergency services but hundreds of residents opted to remain in their homes despite being marooned for more than 24 hours.
All power had been restored by yesterday and the handful of householders still without water were getting emergency supplies from a mobile road tanker.
At local Masses yesterday, the Parish Priest of Aughoose, Father Deaglán MacConghamhna, expressed gratitude that nobody had been killed or injured.
However, he regretted that Pollathomas graveyard had been devastated by three separate mudflows. One swept away the contents of four graves while the others broke down tombstones and left virtually the entire area covered in mud, rocks and bushes ripped from the higher slopes of the mountain.
"It will be a long time before there is total normality here," Father MacCongamhna, added. "There is a huge job of work to be done on the main coast road from Pollathomas to Inver as well as other minor roads in the area. As well, the graveyard restoration will be painful and slow."
Father MacCongamhna said the Friday storm "broke the crowns of two hills" causing at least 20 landslides which spread in every direction. New river valleys were sculpted and bridges washed away. Isolated householders had to protect their homes as water flooded their properties. Many sheep were lost in the deluge.
Belmullet-based Garda Supt Tony McNamara left a wedding of a Garda colleague in Athlone and headed for the stricken area more than 120 miles away when news broke on radio of the catastrophe. Yesterday, he described the scene when he arrived as "like Apocalypse Now, utter devastation".
He added: "The mountain came away in several places and devastated a number of villages. Amazingly, nobody was killed or injured."
Before he was evacuated from the elevated village of Barnacuillew, 82-year-old Mr Martin Moran described the hail and rain as hitting his roof "like bullets".
Supt McNamara added: "Martin told me the rumbling noise as the mountain gave way was absolutely terrifying."
Members of an extended family had a lucky escape when their cars were caught in a torrent of water and mud which breached the graveyard wall.
Teenagers Siobhán McGrath and Anthony McGuire were driving home from a pub quiz when the wall of water and mud struck. "We thought we were going to die," Siobhán said. "We sat in the car hugging each other.We thought that was it - that we would never see each other again."
Siobhán's mother, Ms Teresa McGrath, and her partner, Mr Patrick Flannery, were in a car behind the young couple when the torrent struck.
"Their car was like a toy in a bathtub," Ms McGrath said. "Their car kept turning and turning in the swirl. We thought it would go into the sea."
Emergency teams which included the Irish Coastguard, the Civil Defence, the Garda Síochána, as well as medical and fire and ambulance crews, were praised yesterday by Father MacCongamhna. He said their efforts, and those of the many volunteers who helped, had been heroic. The parish priest also praised those affected, saying they had kept their nerve while confined in their houses in darkness as "mini-rivers" surged by their properties.