Ireland battered for second time in three days as Storm Jocelyn brings damaging gusts

About 34,000 homes and businesses were without power on Tuesday night as the second storm in three days battered the country.

The entire island of Ireland was under strong wind warnings throughout Tuesday, with counties Donegal, Mayo and Galway elevated to orange status, the second most severe level.

In the west, thousands of people had been without power since Storm Isha felled power lines on Sunday and many remained without power as Storm Jocelyn closed in with yet more ferocious power on Tuesday.

At 8.30pm, ESB Networks said in an update that about 16,000 customers who lost electricity supply during Sunday’s storm remained without power, mainly in the northwest. In addition, a spokesman said, 18,000 customers lost supply following the high winds brought by Storm Jocelyn.

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“All available ESB Networks resources are deployed in the most impacted counties including Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo and Sligo,” he said. “Crews are continuing to work into the evening where safe to do so and will mobilise again at first light tomorrow.”

[ Storm Jocelyn: Orange wind warning in place for Donegal, Galway and Mayo as 38,000 without power ]

Forecasters had warned Jocelyn would bring very strong southwest to west winds with severe and damaging gusts. There were warnings of high overtopping coastal waves, difficult travelling conditions, the risk of fallen trees and damage to power lines, as well as to already weakened structures.

The general advice was to remain indoors and avoid travel. The ESB’s online Power Check map was lit up with outages across the country, with the exception of the southeast.

“It’s a long time ago since anyone remembers two storms here like [this] but even the storm that was Sunday night, it’s a long time ago since we had one that bad that lasted for that length,” said John O’Malley, an Independent councillor living in a coastal area of Co Mayo.

Mr O’Malley said he expected his newly restored power would fail again during the course of the night. “There are areas yet, outside and around Westport, that don’t have power yet and may not have it until Thursday.”

Mayo councillor Christy Hyland, a guest house owner in Westport, said he was very concerned about future storms given the disruption to local schools this week, some of which will have been closed for three days. “Especially for working parents, it’s very upsetting for them,” he said.

The conditions brought further travel disruption. At Dublin Airport, eight flights had been cancelled by about 7pm and some others diverted elsewhere before returning. A small number of flights were diverted from Cork to Shannon.

The Port of Cork posted videos of pilot crews guiding ships through heavy seas.

The popular Titanic Belfast museum closed its doors “to safeguard the public and its staff” and to assess damage, citing the effects of both storms Isha and Jocelyn.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) appealed for vigilance as sudden wind gusts threatened to blow people into the path of oncoming vehicles.

“This [storm] at the moment is not going to be as bad as Storm Isha was on Sunday,” Met Éireann meteorologist Mark Bowe told RTÉ radio. “But the fact that there is plenty of debris all over the ground and some damage to already weakened structures [means] this storm will have an extra impact on those particular places, particularly in the northwest.”

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