Main points
- Clean-up operations are under way across the State on Saturday, a day after Storm Éowyn brought record winds and caused extensive damage
- Taoiseach Micheál Martin has promised that the Government will “fully assess” the impact in the days ahead to see “what supports we can offer people and businesses caught up in the aftermath of this storm.
- ESB Networks on Friday said restoring power to the worst-impacted areas could take more than a week
What weather warnings are in place today and tomorrow?
- Saturday 9am to Sunday 12am: Status yellow gale warning for all Irish coasts
- Saturday 6pm to Sunday 10am: Status yellow snow and ice warning for Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry
- Saturday 8pm to Sunday 9am: Status yellow snow and ice warning for Donegal, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo
- Sunday 10am to 7pm: Status yellow wind warning for Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry
- Sunday 5am to 5pm: Status yellow rain warning for Carlow, Kilkenny, Wicklow, Cork, Kerry, Tipperary and Waterford
- Sunday 6am to 6pm: Status yellow wind warning for Carlow, Dublin, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, all of Munster, Galway, Mayo and Sligo
- Sunday 11am to 6pm: Status yellow wind warning for Donegal, Leitrim, Louth and Meath
- Sunday 11pm to Monday 6am: Status yellow wind warning for Cork, Kerry and Waterford
That’s it this evening for live coverage of the aftermath of Storm Éowyn, join us again tomorrow morning for continuing updates on how authorities around the country are coping with the urgent restoration of essential services.
The NECG has published a breakdown by sector of how the clean-up operation is progressing.
Power
460,000 homes, farms and businesses remain without power following Storm Éowyn. ESB Networks is mobilising all available resources to restore power to homes, farms and businesses as soon as possible.
Water
Uisce Éireann crews continue to monitor the impact of Storm Éowyn on water supplies across the country. There are approximately 200,000 customers without water as of 10am Saturday morning, and a further 300,000 at risk.
Telecoms
The estimated effect of Storm Éowyn on the national telecoms userbase is the largest in the Commission for Communications Regulation (Comreg’s) recording history and appears to have peaked.
- 281,326 Fixed Service users (10%) are affected as of 10:00 Saturday 25 January
- 1,760,373 Mobile Service users (30%) are affected as of as of 10:00 Saturday 25 January
- Total users affected nationwide is 40% or 2,041,699
Operators have indicated the most impacted areas are Galway, Donegal, Mayo, Roscommon, Clare, Meath, Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Laois, Sligo and Westmeath.
Health services
HSE services throughout the country saw significant disruptions due to Storm Éowyn with a range of services in hospitals and community healthcare cancelled yesterday and some impacts due to power outages. HSE services are working over the weekend to return to normal after Storm Éowyn.
Humanitarian Assistance Scheme
The Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary, has confirmed that the Humanitarian Assistance Scheme will be available to provide support to those living in properties directly affected Storm Éowyn. The Humanitarian Assistance Scheme prevents hardship by providing income-tested financial support to people whose homes are damaged from flooding and severe weather events and who are unable to meet costs for essential needs, household items and structural repair.
Road safety
Nationally all road users are being advised to be aware of the dangers that may remain following the storm such as downed pylons, lines, trees, branches, and other debris which could block roads.
Transport
Most transport services have now returned to normal following significant disruption yesterday. Passengers are advised to contact their operator for the most up to date information.
Farm safety
Farmers should not put their safety at risk making repairs to buildings or removing fallen trees or branches. This should only be undertaken by operators with the skills and the personal protective equipment to carry out the work safely.
The National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) met this morning as the nationwide clean-up continued following Storm Éowyn.
As we reported earlier, the chair of the NECG briefed the Taoiseach Micheál Martin today and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne, was in attendance at the NECG meeting.
In a statement the NECG said it was “continuing its work to coordinate and support efforts to restore power, water, telecommunications and other services to homes, farms and businesses.
“With unprecedented power outages due to Storm Éowyn, ESB Networks is mobilising all available resources to restore connections as soon as possible. Already 308,000 power connections have been restored, and intensive work will continue over the weekend.”
The statement warned, however, that “full restoration will take more than a week in the worst impacted areas. Estimated restoration times (ERTs) will be provided as network faults are assessed and these will be available to view at www.PowerCheck.ie.”
Local authorities across the country have made “significant progress removing debris and clearing roads, but the public are reminded to be vigilant as fallen trees or other debris may remain in some areas,” the statement continued. “Any obstructions should be reported to the local authority or Gardaí, or to the ESB in the case of fallen or damaged wires.”
The public was once again reminded that storm clean-up “should be left to the emergency services and professional operators who have the necessary competence, training and equipment to undertake the work safely.”
The chairman of the NECG Keith Leonard said that while the “recovery stage is now well underway, the damage caused by Storm Éowyn will still present hazards on our roads, so I’m asking drivers to continue taking extra care this weekend. In particular, please heed the advice from the ESB – never approach fallen power lines and report such cases to ESB Emergency Services.”
The NECG Infrastructure Sub-Group will meet this afternoon with a focus on coordinating the ongoing efforts to restore power and other services while the full NECG will meet again tomorrow, and work will continue throughout the day to coordinate the response and recovery.”
Cork County Council has asked road users to take care and watch out for debris, fallen power lines and downed trees or branches as the clean-up operation continues following yesterday’s storm, writes Olivia Kelleher.
The storm clean-up will take several days to complete and could be hampered as further rain and windy conditions are expected in the county tomorrow.
More than 120,000 people are still without water, with Galway, Mayo, Monaghan and Cavan the worst-impacted counties. A further 400,000 people are at risk of losing their supply. “Over the course of today, we will be continuing to get generators out to site, to get treatment plants back into production,” said Uisce Éireann’s head of water operations, Margaret Attridge. “Where we cannot connect up a generator we have alternative water supplies in the form of tankers going out – situated in locations and communities like church car parks, GAA pitch grounds,” she said.
The massive job of restoring power to hundreds of thousands of Irish. homes and businesses is continuing and as of 12.15pm, ESB Networks had restored power to 308,000 homes, farms and businesses impacted by Storm Éowyn. There are some 460,000 customers across the country without power, down from a peak of 768,000 customers yesterday.
The Allianz Football League Division 1 clash between Kerry and Donegal tomorrow has been postponed because Donegal are not in a position to travel as a result of the weather and the aftermath of Storm Éowyn. The game was due to be played in Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney but with more bad weather on the way it was decided to call the fixture off. The match is likely to take place in early February, although a fresh date will not be confirmed until early next week.
The national emergency co-ordination group is meeting around now. Chairman Keith Leonard said it was “turning our ourselves now to very much supporting ESB Networks and their grid to try and restore power wherever possible”.
An energy and water update suggests there are close to three quarters of a million people across the island of Ireland still without electricity. Some 530,000 homes and businesses in the Republic have no power with a further 190,000 similarly impacted in Northern Ireland. About 217,000 people still have no water, Uisce Eireann has said, while 300,000 customers are at risk of losing supply as a result of power outages.
A story from across the water that will be of interest to many on this side of the Irish Sea has landed. Celtic’s match against Dundee today has been postponed following storm damage to the club’s stadium. A statement from Celtic, who hold a 13-point lead over Rangers, on Saturday morning read: “Today’s scheduled Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee at Celtic Park has been called off. Unfortunately, due to the stadium damage sustained yesterday we have been advised that we are unable to proceed with today’s match. While clearly this is disappointing, the safety of our supporters will always be our priority. The rearranged fixture will take place on February 5, 2025 with a 7.45pm kick-off.”
Postal workers are out and about in many parts of the country this morning delivering all the letters and parcels that they were unable to get to people yesterday.
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris has confirmed that the Defence Forces are involved in the post-storm clean-up.
We have a fresh weather update, and it is not going to make for delightful reading for many people.
We have not yet recovered from the Storm Éowyn weather alerts and more are on their way – a total of three have been issued by Met Éireann for tomorrow.
A status yellow wind warning kicks in at 6am covering Carlow, Dublin, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, Galway, Mayo, Sligo and all of Munster. The forecaster is warning of dangerous travelling conditions until 6pm.
A second wind warning covering Cork, Kerry and Waterford comes into effect from 11pm on Sunday until 6am on Monday.
And a status yellow warning for rain will be in effect for 12 hours from 5am tomorrow for Carlow, Kilkenny, Wicklow, Cork, Kerry, Tipperary and Waterford.
So, why was Storm Éowyn so bad? Ronan McGreevy had a look at the science behind the storm of the century.
Some 217,000 homes and businesses are currently without water, with up to 300,000 customers at risk of being cut off as a result of damage caused to the electricity network by the storm yesterday morning.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has promised that the Government will “fully assess” the impact of Storm Éowyn in the days ahead to see “what supports we can offer people and businesses caught up in the aftermath of this storm”.
In a post on X, Mr Martin said he has been briefed by the chair of the National Emergency Coordination Group, which will meet again today.
“Every effort is being made to get high voltage transmission lines up and running, homes reconnected and water supplies secured,” he said.
“The destruction caused by some of the strongest winds on record has been unprecedented, and there is still a huge amount of work needed in the days ahead to restore electricity, water and communications to hundreds of thousands of people.
“I’m grateful for the efforts of multiple State agencies to help those most in need, and we understand how difficult it is for homes and businesses across the island.”
Mr Martin thanked emergency crews and responders who, he said, were “working tirelessly to restore power, clear roads and help those impacted by the devastation of Storm Éowyn” and described it as a “whole of Government effort including ESB, EirGrid, Irish Water, Local Authorities, the Defence Forces, Civil Defence, the NPWS, Coillte and others”.
Incidentally, we should all spare a thought now for the thousands of people who are waking up this morning to bread mountains and milk lakes in their kitchens after the madness of crowds engulfed them on Thursday evening and swept them into supermarkets to stock up. At least the toilet paper will keep.
Around 250,000 people in Northern Ireland are still without power, while the PSNI has warned it will take days to assess the full impact of the storm. At its peak, more than 280,000 homes and businesses in the North were left without power with the number falling to around 214,000 overnight. It could take up to 10 days to reconnect some of those without electricity. The Department of Infrastructure in Northern Ireland has said there are more than 1,800 fallen trees, branches and other debris blocking roads.
The man killed in Donegal on Friday morning as storm winds picked up has been identified as Kacper Dudek (20).
Gardaí in Raphoe are continuing to investigate the fatal road incident which happened at Feddyglass in the early hours of Friday.
The young man’s body has been removed from the scene to the mortuary in Letterkenny University Hospital where a postmortem will take place.
The N14 remains closed and diversions are in place as Garda investigators continue to carry out a full examination of the scene this morning.
A family liaison officer has been assigned to provided support to the family of Mr Dudek.
The storm damage continues to cause travel disruption with some rail services hit particularly hard. There will be no trains on the Dublin-Westport-Ballina and Dublin-to-Sligo lines today because of power outages at some level crossings and fallen trees on the lines. The clear-up will continue throughout the day.
Storm Herminia is on the way is the bad news but the good news is that while it will bring some pretty miserable weather in the days ahead it should not be nearly as bad as what has just passed. It has been named by the Spanish weather service which is warning of wind speeds of up to 120km/h.
The damage to the power grid might be one of the enduring features of the storm with 725,000 homes and businesses all over the Republic without power at one point yesterday and a quarter of a million properties in a similar position in Northern Ireland.
To put that number into context, just under 400,000 homes and businesses were left without power during Storms Darragh and Ophelia.
ESB Networks has warned that it will take time to reconnect all properties. It had crews out assessing the damage from early this morning with the focus on repairing networks, putting up poles and power lines knocked in the high winds and replacing and repairing transformers.
As of 8am around half a million homes and businesses were still without power and while many will have it restored by the end of the day, others will have to wait up to a week or even longer before things start to return to normal.
The National Emergency Coordination Group is due to meet this afternoon, and Met Éireann is warning of more strong winds on Sunday.
It is the morning after and the assessment of damage done by Storm Éowyn will continue today as the clean-up operation continues.
There were record breaking wind speeds – with gusts reaching 183km/h in Galway at one point early on Friday morning.
One person was killed in the storm, hundreds of thousands remain without power and water, the public transport network continues to face disruptions and there has been significant damage to homes and businesses across the country.
While it will take some time for the scale of the destruction to emerge, it is clear that it will leave many thousands of people will severe logistical and financial headaches in the days and weeks ahead.
The status red and orange wind warnings have been lifted but a yellow snow and ice warning remains in place for Donegal until 9am while it won’t be lifted in Northern Ireland until one hour later.
