Despite the reduced violence in the North last night there was still much disruption as many workers left early and shops and business closed sooner than normal.
Police said 43 people had been arrested between July 1st and yesterday morning, of whom 29 had been charged and 17 noted for prosecution.
There had been 109 attacks on security forces, in which 32 RUC officers and one soldier were injured. The same period saw 37 homes attacked and 34 vehicles hijacked. Three plastic bullets had been fired by security forces.
In Belfast, the exodus began at 3.30 p.m. and by 4.30 p.m. there were traffic jams caused not by protesters but simply by the volume of traffic as drivers attempted to avoid a repetition of Wednesday's two-hour tailbacks.
Late night shopping in the city was cancelled, with department stores putting up shutters by 6.30 p.m. at the latest.
Mr Frank Caddy, chief executive of the Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce, said this was partly on the advice of security forces. "The pattern of disruption is evidently becoming more organised. Last night, a number of staff had problems getting home. Based on last night's experience, and on advice from the police, we will not be proceeding with a late-night opening this evening," he said. Traffic moved reasonably freely through Belfast, but as the evening wore on roadblocks began to appear again, albeit in fewer numbers. There were roadblocks on the Lisburn Road, Upper Malone Road, Ravenhill Road, Donegal Pass, Shore Road and York Road. Outside Belfast in Co Antrim, roads in Carrickfergus, Newtownabbey, Larne, Greenisland, Lisburn and Ballymena were also blocked. In Co Armagh, the main Craigavon to Lurgan road was blocked and there were blocks in Cookstown, Co Tyrone.
Buses in north Belfast were particularly severely disrupted with all routes serving the area cancelled. South Belfast was also badly hit, but in west and most of east Belfast buses were running normally. Services from Belfast to Bangor, Lisburn and Newtownards were cancelled. A spokesman for Translink, the company responsible for public transport, said it was extremely unlikely that nitelink buses would be running tonight or on Saturday.
The threat that the continuing violence poses to the North's economy was underlined by the decision of a US trade delegation to postpone its visit. The trip would have paved the way for possible investment worth millions to the North, Enterprise Trade and Investment Minister Sir Reg Empey said.
"We had a very high-powered group of people coming, people who had access and influence over $6 billion of investment capital," he said, adding that one of the delegation was a chief domestic policy adviser to US Vice-President Mr Al Gore.
There were a number of incidents yesterday. In Belfast last night, a group of youths was reported to have thrown objects at cars from a bridge in the loyalist Whitewell area. A car was hijacked and set on fire in Duncairn Gardens in the north of the city. Police were attacked by loyalists there and also in Newtonabbey.
Nationalists and loyalists clashed on Lanark Way between the Springfield and Shankhill road areas, and a number of petrol bombs were recovered by police in Victoria Park.
The RUC uncovered a petrol bomb-making factory in the loyalist Westland Road area of north Belfast. In a separate incident, the RUC said that a number of blank shots were fired at nationalists in the area. Meanwhile, a group of workers in a block of flats at Greenisland escaped injury when a firework containing nails was thrown into the flats.
RUC and British army personnel in Lurgan, Co Armagh, came under attack in the nationalist Kilwilkee estate after uncovering hundreds of petrol and paint bombs. Meanwhile, politicians have condemned several violent events over Wednesday night. In Kilkeel, Co Down, police were petrol-bombed and stoned when they moved in to help a Catholic family flee their home. The family had asked police to help them get out safely after their home came under attack from loyalist protesters. Condemning the rioters, a police spokesman said they were "thugs" and their actions `nothing better than terrorism".