Sewage coursed through housing estates in Celbridge and businesses in Leixlip were flooded out. A month's worth of rain fell in last Saturday in what were described as the most intense floods in living memory.

Kildare County Council's emergency services were overwhelmed as many staff were on their annual holidays. Phone lines were also down in many parts of the county over the weekend.

Residents in Celbridge complained about the presence of sewage in flood waters and blocked or inadequate drainage systems.

Vanessa Lawns and Vanessa Close in Celbridge are two estates that were badly hit.

Only around four of the thirty or so houses in the Close escaped water entering their homes.

Marianne Dorman was one of the householders in the Close whose home was flooded on Saturday. It was not local Olympian, Eoin Rheinisch, from St. Raphael's Manor, who was pictured paddling a canoe on the RTE news. It was Ms. Dorman who was pictured in a neighbour's vessel as she joined a local authority boat and other canoes in the housing area close to the Tony River.

Ms. Dorman, who joined members of her residents association, at a meeting scheduled for the Kildrought Inn on Tuesday night, blamed a "lack of maintenance" of the drains the the creation of a concrete jungle of houses on flood plains for the the problems.

Her neighbours believe the amount of rubbish in the Tony river did not help the situation. Up to four years ago, she said, the Council regularly provided a skip but four years ago that stopped.

John Geraghty, from Vanessa Close, who was also flooded, said manholes lifted up and water turned grey indicatating there was sewage in it.

Another resident, Margaret Murray, said she rang Kildare County Council four times on Saturday to report the water. She said she asked for sandbags but was told there was flooding all over the county and they had run out of sandbags.

Two side of a cul de sac area in Vanessa Lawns were also badly flooded.

Jim Kennedy, who lives at No. 16, said he had six inches in his bottom floor, and he and his family stayed upstairs over the weekend.

Leixlip native, Margaret Fitzsimmons, had only put in a new wooden floor at her house there four days before it was flooded on Saturday. On Monday morning, she was waiting for a carpenter and an insurance assessor.

She said it took only 45 minutes from the time the rain started to when she was flooded.

Tina Turner, who runs 'More Than Words' shop was cleaning out her Main Street premises on Monday.

She was present on Saturday when rain started to fall around 4pm. "The flood started initially at the back of the shop. We tried to move stuff to the front but then water came in the front."

Ms. Turner said she belives drains were blocked and said manholes were gushing up. Her situation was not improved, she said, when members of the public were advising cars to rush through the flood waters in the Main Street, thereby pushing water towards the stores. "Rather silly,"is how she put it.

In Leixlip, Penny Guinness dismissed a suggestion that Leixlip Castle was flooded but she said a number of their properties at the gates on the Main Street, including the Glebe House, were flooded. Ms. Guinness said there was sewage in the flood waters.

One householder in Duncarraig was flooded for the second time in five just just under six years. In November 2002, the Rye river was not contained by its banks and Deirde Colgan and her family along with two other houses suffered thousands of euros in losses.

Ms Colgan said the damage was not as bad this time but her newly floored sitting room had water up to the skirting board.

Professor John Sweeney of NUI Maynooth, an expert in meteorology, said that Kildare County Council and other local authorities will have to take even more precaution in the future when it come to zoning in County Development and Town Development Plans. Over the next few decades higher rainfall can be expected, he said

Council spokesperson Charlie Talbot said that a month's rain fell last Saturday, so when you get thirty times the ordinary rainfall, systems of drainage and flood protect measures are overwhelmed.

"We took over 3,000 calls in our emergency control, many multiples of the what we would normally receive," he said.

"Fire Service staff visited 178 locations, on Saturday and Sunday. They were called out at 4.00pm Saturday afternoon and were out until 4am on Sunday morning. They were back out on Sunday morning. The roads people were called out at about 5.30pm on Saturday afternoon and were out until 1am in the morning, and back out again at 7.30 on Sunday morning.

"This unfortunately happened at a time when many of our road staff were on annual holiday. Our staff resources were not at peak at the time."
There was severe flooding in the Kilbelin estate in Newbridge and apart from north Kildare, there were calls for assistance from Clane and Allenwood and a section of the road between Naas and Blessington, close to Glen Ding wood, was flooded for a time on Saturday.

Many people were left without a landline phone service by the flood waters.

Leixlip (70) and Celbridge (27) accounted for many of the reports.

There were 27 faults reports from Naas and problems were reported in Newbridge, Athy, Kildare town and Rathangan.

Yesterday morning some 27 customers between Athy and Nebwrige had no service. Last Sunday's meeting at the Curragh fell victim to the weather after the course was found to be waterlogged after an inspection. Course officials looked at the condition of the track at 7.30am on Sunday but the result of a day of rain on Saturday left them with no choice.

"Unfortunately it had to be been cancelled, which is a real shame because it was a cracking card," said Cliff Noone, press officer for the Irish Turf Club.

In Athy, the River of Light Riverside Service planned for tomorrow night, (Wednesday) at 8pm was cancelled due to the rise in the level of the River Barrow.