When he should have been on the altar celebrating Sunday Mass, Fr Michael Reilly was instead wearing hip-high waders yesterday as the flood waters which had destroyed his bungalow swirled and eddied about him.
Both of the regular Sunday Masses in Crossmolina, Co Mayo, were cancelled for the first time in living memory after the river Deel burst its banks in the early morning hours, inundating dozens of homes and businesses.
The local curate's house, which is beside the river, was flooded to a depth of more than 3ft by the water, which destroyed carpets and stained walls and furniture. But as he surveyed the sodden, sorry mess, Fr Reilly was philosophical.
"I'll survive. We'll all survive," he said. "Community spirit will prevail as it did before when disaster struck." Fr Reilly was referring to a similar emergency in 1989 when a large swathe of the residential and business area in Crossmolina was submerged when the Deel last staged a dramatic overflow.
Many people, including Fr Reilly, had to abandon their homes in the face of the rising waters. It could be a week before the curate's bungalow is made habitable again.
It is predicted that this time the clean-up bill will run into hundreds of thousands of euro, such is the scale and nature of the damage. The worst affected areas were Chapel Street, Church Street and parts of Erris Street and Main Street.
As the flood waters showed signs of receding in the early afternoon yesterday, a new threat emerged as the water showed signs of being contaminated with sewage.
One woman in her nineties was marooned upstairs in her house at Chapel Street by the flooding. It was hoped with the assistance of the fire brigade to move her to hospital later in the day when the waters had receded a little. Local GP Dr Michael Loftus, who said the situation was particularly worrying and stressful for elderly people who had to leave their homes, praised the efforts of Mayo County Council and Mayo fire brigade for their response to the emergency, which included sandbagging of high-risk areas.
Ironically, one of the heroes of the rescue effort, local fireman Philip Munnelly, was out helping others when his own hardware store was submerged to a depth of several feet.
Dr Loftus explained that the river bursting its banks was a common occurrence in Crossmolina up to the time of the river Moy drainage scheme in the 1960s. "I don't know how we coped in the old days," he stated.