Tens of thousands of homes remained without electricity on Saturday night after Ireland was battered overnight by Storm Darragh, which brought the strongest winds to hit the country for four years.
The storm left some 395,000 properties without electricity on Saturday morning and ESB Networks said it could take several days, or up to a week in some cases, to restore power to everybody.
In a statement on Saturday evening, ESB Networks said some 120,000 homes, farms and businesses remain without power and that the storm’s impact had been “similar to that of Storm Ophelia in 2017”.
The network said significant numbers of customers may be without supply for a number days and some outages could last for up to a week “due to the severity and significant scale of the damage” caused.
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[ Storm Darragh: as it happenedOpens in new window ]
“Assessment of the extent of damage is continuing,” ESB Networks said. “We acknowledge the disruption to family and commercial life this causes, and thank customers across the country, especially those who will remain without power over the coming days, for their patience as our crews work to safely restore power.”
At the storm’s peak on Friday night, winds of 111km/h were recorded at Mace Head, Co Galway with gusts reaching 141km/h. These were the strongest winds recorded in Ireland since Storm Ellen in August 2020.
Wind gust speeds of 124km/h were recorded at Knock airport in Co Mayo, while they reached 122km/h at Roches Point and Sherkin Island in Co Cork; 120km/h at Shannon Airport in Co Clare, 115km/h at Cork Airport and 113km/h at Dublin Airport.
Status red and orange wind warnings expired on Saturday morning and a yellow warning for the entire country was stood down at 3pm.
Andrew Doran-Sherlock, a forecaster with Met Éireann, on Saturday afternoon said the worst of Storm Darragh had passed.
“The centre of the depression is now off the east coast pulling into the North Sea,” he said. “It is still windy and will be windy through the rest of the day. You may see more impact than you would expect from this level of wind because there are weakened structures already.”
A UK Met Office amber wind warning remained in place for Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry until 9pm.
In Northern Ireland, some 46,000 homes and businesses were without power on Saturday morning.
Keith Leonard of the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management urged the public “to continue to take care in the aftermath” of the storm.
“In particular, motorists should take extra care as there are fallen trees reported all across the country with many roads closed. Ideally, I would advise drivers not to travel today unless necessary and to check your route in advance if you have to head out,” he said.
Uisce Éireann said there had been disruption to water treatment plants in Kerry, east Limerick, Clare, Tipperary, Waterford, Donegal, Leitrim and Galway.
“Due to the severity of the storm, Uisce Éireann had activated its emergency response processes, including deploying generators at key sites where power outages were likely,” said Uisce Éireann head of water operations Margaret Attridge.
The utility company estimated that “40 of our 698 water treatment plants are currently not in production due to weather related issues with the potential to impact up to 153,000 customers should treated water reservoirs run dry. A further 20 plants are classified at risk but not yet impacting customers.”
Telecommunications firm Eir said Storm Darragh caused widespread service disruptions across Ireland, with Mayo and Donegal “among the hardest-hit counties but impacts felt nationwide”. It said more than 35,000 broadband faults, 20,000 fixed voice and about 500 mobile network site outages had been registered.
“The full scale of the impact will continue to emerge over the coming days once power is restored and roadways are cleared; power generators are being deployed to impacted mobile sites. The storm has caused extensive localised damage, particularly in the west, with downed cables, poles, and other critical infrastructure,” Eir said in a statement.
Around the country, many regional and local roads were blocked on Saturday due to fallen trees and debris.
Even after the weather alert ended rail services were still operating with significant delays. Dublin-Belfast services were taking 90 minutes longer than usual, with Dart services operating with delays of 15 minutes, Dublin-Cork services 25 minutes, Heuston commuter services 25 minutes, Westport 30 minutes and Galway 35 minutes.
Some ferry sailings were cancelled due to windy conditions.
In Galway, numerous roads were blocked on Saturday as a result of the storm. The N59 was closed just west of Oughterard, the N65 was blocked between Killimor and Portumna, the N84 at Corrandulla Cross was closed and there were reports of trees down on the N63 from Mountbellew to Ballygar.
The new clubhouse at Garrymore GAA in Co Mayo was damaged by Storm Darragh and the club’s gym remains closed until further notice.
Significant damage was caused to Gillooly Hall on Temple Street in Sligo which is currently undergoing renovation.
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