Storms lead to power blackout

Proceedings at the Ryder Cup competition were not the only thing put in jeopardy by Thursday night's storms. Up to 50,000 homes were left without electricity due to downed power lines during what the ESB said was the worst power blackout in over 18 months.

Between 3,000 and 5,000 phone lines were also cut, according to Eircom, and some customers will be without any service until the middle of next week.

A number of houses had no electricity for almost 24 hours as ESB crews struggled to restore power to counties along the east coast as well as to parts of Limerick, Tipperary and Donegal.

Winds of up to 132km/h (82mph) felled trees and telephone poles, while up to 82mm of rain caused flooding in some areas in a 7/8-hour hour period.

Some 400 Eircom field staff are scheduled to work over the weekend to try to restore phone lines, but a spokesman said that their work would take longer than ESB repairs because each line had to be restored on an individual rather than an area basis.

ESB repair crews were on alert from Thursday evening following a severe weather warning from Met Éireann and they had reconnected most homes by lunchtime yesterday.

Blackouts were caused by timber falling on power lines, a spokesman for the company said.

More trees fell than would have been expected because they were still in leaf, making them more susceptible to high winds, according to Met Éireann.

The storm was the tail-end of Hurricane Gordon, which blew in from the middle of the Atlantic but had been downgraded to a tropical storm before reaching Ireland.

Weather conditions were likely to remain blustery and breezy over the coming days but more extreme weather was not expected, said Met Éireann forecaster Michael McAuliffe.

Several marquees which had been erected for next week's National Ploughing Championships in Carlow were badly damaged by the storms. However, the National Ploughing Association said that arrangements were being made to repair or replace damaged structures, and the ground conditions for ploughing were excellent.