PacemakerAbout 3,000 properties in Northern Ireland are still without electricity in the aftermath of Storm Amy.
The storm, which made landfall on Friday, caused damage to power lines, schools and vehicles.
NIE Networks said it is “doing our very best” to get as many as possible reconnected, but had already warned it could run into Monday.
In the Republic of Ireland, a man in his 40s died in County Donegal on Friday in a “weather-related incident”, and about 10,000 properties are still without power.
All trains, including cross-border services, were cancelled on Friday night and for most of Saturday morning because of the weather conditions.
But, on Sunday, Translink said that the majority of services across the bus and rail network have now been restored and are running as normal.
The Education Authority (EA) said 18 schools in Northern Ireland had reported “storm-related incidents” – mainly damage to roofs and fallen trees – to its maintenance services.
A yellow wind warning issued by the Met Office expired at 23:59 BST on Saturday.
A peak wind gust of 92mph (148km/ph) – provisionally a new October record – was recorded at the Magilligan weather station in County Londonderry on Friday.
PacemakerInfrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins thanked the teams who worked “tirelessly” in “very dangerous and challenging” conditions to respond to the damage and disruption caused by the storm.
She said 1,457 incidents were reported to the Department of Infrastructure, including more than 350 flooding issues and 1,018 obstructions, such as fallen trees.
“They have been working hard to clear the affected parts of our road network, to mitigate the effects of flooding through proactive measures, maintaining critical drainage infrastructure as well as restoring power and water to homes and getting the public transport network back to normal,” she added.
“This is the work that so often goes unseen but is essential in reconnecting our communities and making our road network safe.”
Power cuts
At the height of the storm, about 65,000 properties were without an electricity supply after strong winds brought trees down and damaged the network.
NIE said the worst affected areas for power outages are Craigavon, Enniskillen, Omagh, Downpatrick, Ballymena and Dungannon, with community assistance centres opened for those without electricity.
Alex Houston, NIE’s Networks operations manager, said teams would be working around the clock to reconnect all those without power.
Broadband
On Saturday night, Fibrus told News NI it was “aware of approximately 950 customer-reported fibre faults”.
It had already restored broadband services to 1,300 customers by that stage.
A “complete picture will only emerge as power is fully restored”, it added.
Openreach, a communications firm which looks after the broadband network, said its engineers “were out in force assessing and repairing reported damage as soon as it was safe to do so”.
“Current broadband numbers may be impacted by power outages however once power is restored, hubs should start working again,” its spokeswoman said.
“We would encourage all members of the public to log any phone/broadband issues directly with their communications provider.”
PA MediaIn the Republic of Ireland, some 184,000 properties lost power on Friday, but by late Saturday evening that number had fallen to 13,000.
The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) said the majority of those still affected should have their power back by Sunday evening, but warned some in the worst affected areas may be without electricity into early next week.
The worst affected counties are Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo and Roscommon.
On Saturday, Uisce Éireann (Irish Water) said about 4,000 homes – mainly in County Donegal – are without water and that crews were working to restore supply “as quickly as possible”.
Emergency contacts
To report faults or emergencies you can contact:
- Northern Ireland Housing Executive: 03448 920 901
- Gas networks: 0800 002 001
- NI Water: 03457 44 00 88 or visit niwater.com
- Flooding Incident Line: 0300 2000 100
- NIE Networks: 03457 643 643 or visit nienetworks.co.uk
- Openreach damage reports: 0800 023 2023