Thousands to be without power for days

LORNA SIGGINS

Thousands of homes and businesses in Limerick could be without electricity for several days following

Wednesday’s storm.

ESB staff spent yesterday working to restore power to 20,000 customers, while Eircom reported 30,000 of its customers in Limerick were without a service.

Limerick County Council issued a boil notice due to extensive power outages affecting water pumping stations and treatment plants.

The local authority said the decision to issue the notice was taken as it could not guarantee water supplies were treated to the standards required by regulations. Water supplies in Limerick city and suburbs were not affected by the notice.

Good Samaritan

Meanwhile, a Good Samaritan who helped a woman whose car got stuck in a ditch is counting the costs of damage to his own vehicle, which was crushed by a tree before being set alight on Wednesday.

Mark Quaid (37) was driving out of Limerick towards Meelick when he stopped to help another motorist in difficulty. As he did, winds knocked a tree over, crushing his Opel van. After leaving the scene to get help, the builder returned to discover his work tools had been stolen from his stranded van. “I came back and the few handy bits I had in the van, power tools and stuff like that was all taken.” Mr Quaid said he received a call later that night to notify him that his van was on fire.

In south Galway, flooding has resulted in many minor roads being closed and several homes losing power.

Galway County Council said the worst affected areas were south of Coole Park between the Slieve Aughty mountains and the coastline at Kilcolgan.

Roads and farmland around Peterswell, Ardrahan, Kilcolgan and Ballinderreen were affected.

'Extensive leaking'

In Galway city, repairs have been carried out on the University Hospital Galway (UHG) acute psychiatric unit, according to HSE West.

HSE West said yesterday patients would not be affected, and the unit had the capacity to “safely provide services to all of the patients who are currently being treated”.

The health board also said there was “extensive leaking” from windows in St Brigid’s Hospital in Ballinasloe and this would be “repaired shortly”.