Torrential rain and high winds have caused widespread travel disruption and flooding across Northern Ireland, with Belfast and Co Down worst affected.
On many roads there was up to three inches of surface water. The country-bound lane of the M1 out of Belfast was closed due to severe flooding between the Black's Road and Saintfield Road junctions. Many minor roads in north Co Down, east Belfast and Newry, Co Down, were also under water.
One of the North's busiest commuter rail links, between Belfast and Bangor, Co Down, was partially closed after a landslide blocked one track near Holywood. A spokesman for Translink said it hoped to have the line cleared and reopened late tomorrow.
An Ulster Unionist MLA for the area, Mr Peter Weir, said cancellation of trains was evidence of Northern Ireland Railways' failure to maintain the line properly. Blaming freak weather conditions when landslides on the track had become such a frequent occurrence was "an insult to people's intelligence", he added.
The fire brigade had to be called to pump water out of a care home for people with learning disabilities in Dundonald, on the outskirts of east Belfast, after a river burst its banks in the early hours of yesterday morning. Residents at Arran House were evacuated when water started seeping under bedroom doors, severely flooding a number of rooms. A Christmas party for the residents, scheduled for yesterday, had to be cancelled.