Updated 12pm

THOUSANDS OF HOMES and businesses are without power as Storm Gertrude batters Ireland.

However, thousands more have been reconnected by ESB Networks.

Among the worst affected areas were Achill in Mayo, Kilcoole in Wicklow and Killeshandra in Cavan.

The ESB said that early this morning, 10,000 customers were without power. It hoped to have most people back online around 9am.

A look at its power check site showed that the number of homes and businesses affected has dropped significantly in recent hours.

Iain Miller shot this footage at Gweedore in Donegal today:

The outages came as a number of weather warnings were kept in place beyond the scheduled stoppage time of 9am.

There is an orange wind warning for Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Dublin, Longford, Louth, Wexford, Wicklow, Meath, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Waterford that has seen high winds of up to 130km/h.

Locations of power outages ESB Powercheck ESB Powercheck

There is also a yellow warning in place for Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath, Roscommon, Limerick and Tipperary and a weather warning for the entire country.

The rest of the day will begin to clear and brighten, Met Éireann says. However, that will be punctuated with rain and hail.

Whilst the winds will ease a little, staying rather windy for the day, with fresh to strong and gusty westerly winds. Turning cooler through the day, with some hail showers occurring in the north and west later – showers will be more widespread at that point too.

Tonight will be cold, blustery and rainy with lows of zero degrees Celsius.

- Additional reporting Aoife Barry

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