Up to 7,000 homes across Ireland were still without power today as storms caused widespread damage and claimed the life of a woman whose car was hit by a falling tree.
Yesterday’s severe weather was easing this morning, but conditions remained dangerous in some areas and drivers were warned to avoid unnecessary journeys as debris could still be blocking roads.
At the height of the storms around 70,000 homes were without power in the Republic and in Northern Ireland approximately 50,000 homes lost electricity.
Police named the woman killed when a tree fell on her car on the Strangford Road, Downpatrick, Co Down, at around 4pm yesterday as 35-year-old Mairead Theresa Sheilds from Raholp in the town.
The tragedy came as winds - which reached a record 106mph in Co Mayo - brought down electricity lines, uprooted trees, toppled telephone poles and sparked flooding on coastal routes.
In Dublin a driver narrowly escaped serious injury when an overhead gantry crashed onto Naas Road in front of a car.
Staff from the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) in the south and Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) north of the border worked into the night trying to restore power.
The organisations said that despite the conditions their workers had successfully reconnected the vast majority of customers.
But in Northern Ireland 1,800 homes were still to have power restored this morning, while in the Republic the figure was 5,000 households.
Officials predicted power would be restored in these areas today as workers completed repair work.
NIE reported winds of up to 70mph last night and in Co Mayo in the Republic Met Eireann — which records in metric — reported record gusts of 170kph.
A spokeswoman for NIE said of last night’s storms: “Broken poles, broken conductors and trees breaking and falling into power lines made for difficult working conditions.
“Northern Ireland Electricity engineers and linesmen worked late into the night to return the majority of customers to supply.
“We will be working very hard today to make repairs to the isolated pockets of the network which are still without electricity.”
A spokesman for ESB said areas such as Kerry and Cork were among the first to be affected yesterday, but that parts of Sligo later suffered power failure as the weather began to move up the west coast.
The storms were predicted to eventually spread to hit west Ulster, affecting Donegal, but in the end the east of the province also saw severe weather in counties Antrim and Down.
Officials said that in Northern Ireland alone more than 200 trees were removed from roads, while some areas remained blocked by debris this morning.
A fallen tree blocked the Dublin-Limerick train line yesterday, while flooding and debris blocked roads in areas across the south at the height of the storms.
A helicopter was sent to help a cargo vessel that got into difficulties near Inishvickillane, off the Kerry coast.
Police in Belfast appealed last night for contractors to ensure tools, wood and scaffolding were safely secured on building sites after a number of items were blown across roads posing a danger to the public.
Agencies