Thousands still without power weeks after Storm Eowyn

Thousands of people remain cut off from electricity more than two weeks after Storm Eowyn brought record-breaking winds to Ireland.

The National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) met on Saturday in a bid to further co-ordinate efforts to restore power, water, telecommunications and other services following the severe weather event.

Eowyn cut electricity supply to more premises than ever before.

Power has so far been restored to 764,500 homes, farms, schools and businesses.

However, 3,500 customers remain without supply.

As part of the response, skilled technicians from agencies in Austria, Finland, the UK, Germany and Norway were brought into the most-impacted areas.

Several large-capacity generators have been provided by Poland and Denmark, following a request under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

The generators are being deployed to support ESB Networks, Uisce Eireann and telecommunications operators to bring power, water, phone and broadband services back to homes, schools and businesses.

Meanwhile, the National Cyber Security Centre said there are scam text messages purporting to come from ESB Networks.

Members of the public are advised to exercise caution when receiving messages from unknown numbers and note that Government departments, agencies and banks will never phone, text, email or video call unexpectedly asking for bank details.

Uisce Eireann is working to return service to the “final few” customers without water.

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The estimated effect of Storm Eowyn on the national telecoms userbase was the largest in ComReg’s recording history.

As of 10am on Saturday, 0.4% of fixed service users were without services and 0.62% of mobile service users were experiencing some level of degradation of service.

Repair and restoration work has returned normal services to most customers and several fixed service operator networks have been returned to normal service levels.

However, many areas in the north and west of the country continue to be affected by outages, which have been caused by extensive damage to infrastructure in rural areas.

Operators of fixed line services have indicated that it may still take a number of weeks to fully restore their services due to the significant damage caused.

Elsewhere, emergency response hubs are assisting people with basic needs such as water, hot food, phone charging, broadband access, and shower facilities.

The hubs are also operating study rooms for exam year students.

The NECG is continuing to emphasise safety in the aftermath of the storm.

In a statement, it said: “If you come across fallen wires or damaged electricity networks, never, ever touch or approach these as they are live and extremely dangerous.

“Report any damage to electricity infrastructure by calling 1800 372 999.”

The NECG will meet again on Sunday.