Citizens of south Dublin's leafy suburbs were left stranded in their homes yesterday following a brief but dramatic episode of localised flooding.
A short burst of heavy thundery rain over the Dublin area between 1.30 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. yesterday led to flooding in much of the Dublin 4 and Dublin 6 areas.
Dublin City Council's traffic control centre had more than 500 calls related to the flooding yesterday afternoon, many of which were from people in the Ballsbridge, Ranelagh, Rathmines and Harold's Cross areas who had become trapped in their homes or cars because of the floods.
A spokeswoman for Dublin City Council said the floods were due to a failure of the drainage system, but she could not say if this was due to leaves not having been cleared from the roadside and subsequently clogging the shores.
"The deputy city engineer has told me that the flooding was so localised as a result of the exceptionally heavy rainfall that no drainage system could have coped with it," she said. "We knew from the forecast there was going to be rain but I don't think anyone expected this," she added.
The council deployed drainage crews to the affected areas yesterday and "gully suckers" were used to clear the shores.
Heavy showers affected most of the east coast yesterday and are set to return over the next few days, according to Met Éireann.
Eastern coastal counties came under a deluge of heavy rain and thunderstorms during yesterday morning and afternoon.
The band of rain moved on to England in the early evening but many areas continued to experience showers throughout yesterday and last night.
Most of the rest of the country had only occasional showers and brighter, drier weather is due in all areas today, although northern and eastern coastal areas will still experience some showers.
The weather is set to improve tomorrow, with an increase in sunny spells.
However showers are to return from Wednesday, becoming gradually longer and heavier towards the weekend.
Last week was particularly wet for the time of year, Met Éireann said. Parts of south and the midlands experienced three times the normal rainfall.
