Cork and Kerry bear the brunt of storm damage

Repair crews headed out early this morning to begin work on restoring power to some 25,000 customers in the south of the country.

According to ESB Networks Southern Division Manager, Cork and Kerry bore the brunt of the damage with power lines down due to either fallen trees or broken poles resulting in some 350 individual faults which repairs are dealing with.

Mr Cambridge told The Irish Times that a broken pole on Cathedral Road resulted in some 1,800 households in the Fair Hill area of Cork's northside being left without power, but power has been restored to all homes in the area.

In Mayfield also on Cork’s northside, power has been restored to 250 of the 500 homes left without power while in Rochestown on the southside and the dormitory town of Carrigaline all but 500 of the 1,200 homes affected have had power restored this morning.

Most of the damage was caused late last night or early this morning when, according to Met Eireann at Cork Airport, winds speeds hit gusts of 59 knots shortly before 9pm and 10pm and again just before 3am this morning.

Mr Cambridge said large swathes of Cork County were also affected with some 1,000 homes left without power in Cloghroe in Mid-Cork but power has been restored to 550 of these while crews are also working to restore power to 600 homes in Aherla and 400 homes in Farnanes.

Strong winds had led to a lot of storm damage across heavily wooded parts of Cork and crews were having to cut away fallen timber before they were in a position to repair power lines and get them operational again, said Mr Cambridge.

Carrignavar and Whitechurch were also badly hit with some 450 homes left without power while in North Cork, power has been restored to 250 of 500 homes affected in the Fermoy and Mitchelstown areas, he added.

In West Cork some 1,300 homes in the Dunmanway area were left without power while in the Bandon area, ESB Network crews have succeeded in restoring power to some 3,000 of the 5,500 homes which had power supplies knocked out by the storms.

Meanwhile in Co Kerry, ESB Network crews are working to restore power to some 4,000 homes in the Killarney district including 1,700 in the Kenmare area and 660 homes in the Kanturk area in North Cork which is also serviced from Killarney.