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AN ELDERLY COUPLE living in a remote part of Co Galway have been informed that their power will not be restored until, at least, Sunday evening – leaving them without electricity for over two weeks.
The couple, a husband and wife aged in their 80s, said they had several elderly neighbours in a similar situation. They said they did not wished to be named in this article due to concerns that their community might be targeted by criminals while householders remained without power.
The husband told The Journal: ”We’re getting on badly. We’ve no place to keep anything fresh.
“We’re going into town every few hours for supplies. I estimate I’ve used up three times the amount of diesel than I normally would, in the last few days.”
The couple, who are one household out of 13,000 still without power, have been able to keep one room in their home warm by using a fireplace and have been cooking pre-prepared food using a gas stove. They said they missed their usual diet, however.
One power line, connected to the end of 12 houses in the small village in northern Galway, fell two weeks ago during the record-breaking winds of Storm Éowyn.
The husband estimates that the work needed to restore the area’s power is miniscule, compared to other major restoration efforts being prioritised.
“The ESB is deciding priority based on numbers, not need. And there’s a big need in our village,” he said – reiterating that a number of the residents are aged in their late 70s and early 80s.
He said the town has been plunged into a “black oasis” since the storm, and has now been put at the “end of the queue”.
Asked for comment on the case, the ESB said the storm caused significantly more damage to its network compared to other storms. It said the diversely located population of Ireland increases the risk to the network in severe weather.
A spokesperson said technicians were doing everything possible to restore power to all customers as soon as possible.
The man said that he had contacted councillors, TDs and the ESB seeking that immediate attention be brought to restoring the village’s power, but has yet to receive direct communication from any of them.
He and his wife had been offered alternative accommodation by Galway County Council, but neither felt comfortable leaving their home unattended and believed the issue would have been resolved by this point.
He said the HSE had been in contact with the couple to complete a wellness and healthcare survey.
The man told The Journal that he believes the issue could have been avoided had the ESB taken better care of the energy infrastructure. He claimed electricity lines had not been serviced for years and that many of the wooden poles were damp and old.
“We couldn’t have guessed the damage this storm would’ve caused,” he said. “But the ESB could’ve been prepared for these incidents way back over the years.”
A spokesperson for the ESB said the company makes “considerable investments” to maintain services for its 2.4 million customers, including providing maintenance to the 160,000 kms of overhead and 28,000 kms of underground wires.
They added that the ESB is “obliged to select the least-cost, technically acceptable solution” for providing its services and, therefore, rural areas will most likely receive power through overhead wires.
Asked about plans to offload the cost of the restoration works onto customers, the man said he believes it was not right for the ESB to charge customers “because of their neglect of the town”.
He said the company has been “sitting on their hands” instead of maintaining the trees and shrubs that surrounded the electricity poles in the village.
ESB chief executive Paddy Hayes told RTÉ earlier this week that the disruption from Storm Éowyn will be “significant” and cost the utility company “tens of millions”.
As a result, he said ESB prices will likely rise in 2026.
The Journal also visited three emergency assistance centres in north Galway yesterday which have been set up to help the region where hundreds of homes remain without power nearly two weeks on from the storm.
Coordinators at the hubs all agreed that better planning must be in place for future major weather events. At its peak, 750,000 bill payers around Ireland had their electricity impacted and hundreds arrived at these local centres seeking assistance.
Each coordinator who met with The Journal agreed that the extent of the damage was unforeseen, and recognised that emergency ESB crews are working tirelessly to restore those in remote locations.
But some suggested that the true extent of the storm could have been communicated to clubs, community centres and resource clinics so that a plan was in place to assist those impacted locally.
Martin Ward, the manager of Brú Bhríde community centre in Tuam, said the plan for recovery should have been put together more comprehensively in advance.
“There’s people’s homes destroyed, slates and sheds damaged, 133 trees were knocked in our local park, people were left without electricity – and that’s just in the town of Tuam – that’s excluding what has happened out in the country. It’s terrible.”
Brú Bhríde was opened as an emergency hub after power was restored to the building a number of days after the storm.
Hundreds arrived seeking tea, coffee, showers, hot water and a place to charge their phone. Staff have since been helping people to fill out humanitarian assistance request forms and continue to offer facilities to those impacted by power outages.
Kathleen Ward, a primary care coordinator in Tuam and other local coordinators drafted a ‘Red Warning Response Plan’ following the storm and delivered it to people living rurally, to make them aware of what services were on offer at Tuam town.
Martin Ward suggested that those measures could be in place before large weather events in the future and that local community groups could help put together plans in conjunction with local authorities.
“In a town like Tuam, you’ve got the rugby club, Tuam Stars, Tuam community council and many other community groups,” he said.
“They should be able to come together and devise an emergency plan for towns like Tuam and the surrounding areas and identify what’s needed, who the volunteers would be and where they would be placed”
In Headford, 20 kilometres away from Tuam, Jason Gavin, an academy coordinator and volunteer at Moyne Villa football club, said people were “filtering in” to the doors of their clubhouse “in their hundreds” at one point.
The clubhouse offered a place for people to work, study, charge their phone, wash clothes and take showers.
The number of people arriving daily to the clubhouse in the rural town has dropped in recent days but dozens are still availing of the shower facilities, hot water and the remote-working centre, Gavin said.
He added that, he believes, there wasn’t much preparation for Storm Éowyn in the days before its arrival.
He said, however, that it wasn’t until after the storm had passed that community groups realised that what needed to be done to help those impacted.
“We made it work, along with all the other volunteers and coaches involved with the club,” he said.
“When we put the call out to people, they came in thousands.”
“A lot of the people that were here were affected as well, that is the volunteers and coaches. But they saw there was more people needed to look after the elderly – they were in a really bad position.”
Elsewhere in the town, employees at the Solas Family Resource Centre, on Main St, have been assisting people with filling out and posting humanitarian assistance forms as well as making deliveries locally for their meals on wheels scheme.
John Mitchell, the manager of the centre who has been at the facility for nearly 15 years, told The Journal that dozens more families signed up to the hot food scheme in the days following the storm.
He said that delivery crews have been out for hours longer than normal, locating those living rurally and offering any additional help. More than 50 households were signed up to the scheme at its peak, within a 160km radius of the centre, he added.
Mitchell said that the storm had greatly impacted families who were already struggling in the region, some of whom need assistance despite working full-time jobs. He believes the aftermath of the storm will have a lasting financial impact.
“With the extra costs of living, families – who both parents are working – are still finding it difficult to make ends meet. At the end of the month, they still don’t have enough money to pay their bills,” he said.
Ward suggested that a system to deliver food, energy sources and other essential items to vulnerable members of towns and communities could be a viable option to assist people in times of emergency in the future.
“They’re not that complicated. It would take an awful lot of pressure off of people.”
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