20,000 ESB customers without power tonight

Some 20,000 people are without electricity tonight due to adverse weather conditions in the south of the country.

A statement from ESB Networks said the main areas affected are Cork, Clonakilty, Dunmanway, Bandon, Gorey, Enniscorthy, and Thomastown.

“Due to conditions it is not possible to carry out repairs and these customers may be out overnight,” said the statement. “ESB Networks crews will be dispatched at first light to carry out repairs.”

Meanwhile, a pensioner has told of how she feared for her life after lightning struck her home in Cork city and sent a portion of the roof and ceiling crashing into her bedroom.

Ber Condon was asleep in the upstairs bedroom of her house at Avonmore Park in Mayfield on Cork's northside when lightning struck around 12.30am last night.

“I was asleep in bed when I was suddenly woken up by this bang - I knew straight away it was the lightning hitting the house and a portion of the ceiling came crashing down in the room.

"I could have been killed but luckily it missed the bed - I got an awful shock - I'm still in shock to be honest," said Ms Condon as she surveyed the damage with her daughter, Karen.

Ms Condon was just one of a number of residents in Avonmore Park to have a lucky escape as the bolt of lightning which blew a four fout hole in her roof also damaged other houses.

Her next door neighbours, Peter and Mary Anders went into their spare back bedroom to discover that a chunk of masonry had come crashing through the roof to land on a bed.

“It’s a piece of mass concrete from the dividing wall between ourselves and next door and it landed on the pillow on the bed but thankfully there was no one sleeping in the room.

“My daughter and grandson often come down at weekends and stay in the room so we were haunted (lucky) that there was no one there because they could have been killed,” he said

Another neighbour, Kevin Geraghty told how he was having a cup of tea with his friend Ray O'Callaghan when they suddenly heard a loud bang just outside the house.

“It was like somebody threw a massive petrol bomb against the window - half the plugs in the house were just blown out of the sockets, it was unreal,” said Mr Geraghty.

Local public representative, Cllr Ted Tynan of the Workers Party paid tribute to Cork City Council after he reported the lightning strike to the council's emergency phone number.

“I rang them around 9.20am and there was a full team up there by 10.15am - the electrics were restored by mid afternoon and a temporary roof put in place to keep the rain out.

“The works team will be back up there tomorrow to carry out full repairs on the roof after cleaning up the damage today - to be fair, the council responded very promptly,” he said.

The houses in Avonmore Park were among some 1,700 homes across Cork city and county which suffered power outages as a result of the lightning strikes across the south.

ESB Networks were also dealing with faults in Bantry, Bandon, Ballinspittle, Dunmanway, Clonakilty, Drimoleague and Kilbrittain in West Cork as well as others in the city.

According to ESB Networks Technical Manager, Mary O’Mahony, about 1,000 houses lost power last night, mainly along the south coast including on the Iveragh and Beara Peninsulas.

Houses on the Mizen Head and Sheep’s Head peninsulas were also left with power due to a lightning strike, as were some houses around Cork Harbour, said Ms O’Mahony.

Some 100 network technicians were mobilised by ESB Networks and they worked through the night in very inhospitable weather conditions to restore power to the majority of homes.

However further lightning strikes this afternoon led to power outages in Cahersiveen, Waterville and Sneem in Co Kerry and Bantry, Skibbereen and Timoleague in West Cork.

Around 1,200 homes were left without power in Glanmire and Aghada in East Cork but over 200 network technicians were mobilised and power was restored to most homes by 6pm.

A small number of customers in Kerry and West Cork were set to be without power tonight but repair crews are being drafted in from the midlands to help restore power.