WATCH: More than 10,000 without power in Limerick as Storm Ellen batters the country

More than 10,000 homes and businesses across Limerick are without power as Storm Ellen continues to batter the country.

A status orange weather warning for Limerick and several other counties took effect at 9pm on Wednesday and remains in place until 6am with further strong winds and heavy rain expected throughout the night.

According to Met Éireann, wind speeds of 67km/h with gusts of 113km/h were recorded at Shannon Airport shortly before 1am.

The worst of the bad weather hit Limerick shortly before midnight leaving thousands of people without electricity.

Now it's raining more than ever... #StormEllen pic.twitter.com/2dlOphyZEv

— Nick Rabbitts (@Nick468official) August 19, 2020

#StormEllen just got a little windy in Limerick pic.twitter.com/8RcGTowQD4

— Tom Red (@Tomredmoon) August 19, 2020

Transformer hit by a falling tree, live wires down, road is blocked @ Carhue, Kilbehenny Co. Limerick... very scary stuff #StormEllen pic.twitter.com/FwUQM0eWpm

— eamonn (@eamonnjwalshh) August 19, 2020

#limerick #limerickcity #StormEllen has landed!! The wheel bins will take flight by morning!! @MrBinman @MetEireann reports of trees down and power faults @ESBNetworks on standby #StaySafe no unnecessary risk pic.twitter.com/EVvNYAnpCN

— Breda foley (@FoleyBreda) August 19, 2020

According to ESB networks there are significant faults in the Cappamore, Bruff, Moylish, Ahane, Garryspillane and Kilmallock areas. There are also outages in Singland, Clarina, Patrickswell and Lough Gur.

Repair crews will be deployed as soon as it is safe to do so and initial estimates are that many customers will not have their supply restored until Thursday afternoon.

Apologies, we are experiencing high call volumes due to #StormEllen . You can log a fault for your property here https://t.co/oBMjE3nuDB .For fault updates its https://t.co/VMtxFrW7FY or download our powercheck app.#StaySafe

— ESB Networks (@ESBNetworks) August 19, 2020

Limerick City and County Council has placed its emergency crews on standby and the full extent of the damage caused will become clearer once daylight comes.

There have been no reports of significant flooding in Limerick so far.

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