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Storm Ophelia: Households should prepare to be without power for a number of days

ESB is warning some households will be without power for up to 10 days.

Powercheck ESB Networks ESB Networks

Updated 8.20pm

A TOTAL OF 330,000 customers around the country are currently without electricity after Storm Ophelia caused major damage across Ireland.

ESB Networks has said impacted customers should prepare to be without power overnight and for a number of days.

It has also confirmed that between 1,650 and 3,300 premises will not see a return to service for up to 10 days.

Fallen trees on overhead lines are responsible for most of the damage to the network.

In its latest statement, issued at 8.15pm, ESB Networks said emergency crews have been deployed across the country and are dealing with emergencies and restoring power where it is safe to do so.   

A spokesperson noted that loss of service to this scale is “unprecedented”.

As you can see from the map, areas across the entire country are affected.

In a statement, ESB Networks said: “Based on previous experience of Storm Darwin in 2014, where about 280,000 customers were left without supply, we can predict that it will take a number of days to restore power to all customers.  Five to ten per cent of this number will be without power for up to ten days.”

It also issued a warning about customers who use electrically powered medical devices and who are without power:

It is very important that any customers who use electrically powered medical devices should contact their healthcare professional to make alternative arrangements if necessary.

Affected areas 

The ESB has warned customers not to approach fallen electricity wires under any circumstances.

To keep up to date with the areas affected by power outages, click here.

The ESB has asked customers not to call the network about normal power outages in order to keep phone lines open for emergencies.

To report emergency and dangerous situations on ESB Networks please call 1850 372 999 or +353 21 2382410.

Meanwhile, 11,000 Eir customers are without broadband, telephone and mobile services.

The company said 90 of its mobile sites are off=air with the worst affected areas being the southwest, west and midlands.

The number of outages is expected to rise as access for crews to problem areas is limited because of road closures.

In a statement, the company said Ophelia had “delivered unprecedented and widespread levels of damage to Eir’s infrastructure throughout the country”.

This includes damage to poles, cables and mast infrastructure. We anticipate that the network damage will extend as the storm tracks across the country.

It said the repair work will take some time given the “overhead nature of the network in rural Ireland”.

If damaged infrastructure is causing a public safety risk, people are asked to contact 1850 245 424 or An Garda Siochana.

Customers can find the latest information via www.eir.ie and can also log faults on the “Log a Fault” section of www.eir.ie or through an automated customer service line 1901. Faults can be reported to either service 24 hours a day, seven days week.

With reporting by Sinead O’Carroll,  Orla Ryan and Christine Bohan

LIVE: ‘A matter of life and death’ – Updates as Storm Ophelia makes landfall on Kerry coast>

Related: Storm Ophelia: Travel and transport – the main points you need to know>

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    Mute SeekingUniverslTruth
    Favourite SeekingUniverslTruth
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 8:41 AM

    ” People still take English classes in US high schools up to senior year”

    eh. don;t we do that here?

    113
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    Mute Owen Slattery
    Favourite Owen Slattery
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:33 AM

    Albeit with an emphasis on shite poetry

    72
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    Mute Stephen Downey
    Favourite Stephen Downey
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 10:50 AM

    Not really, by Leaving Cert you are not learning to speak and write English, you are studying the English language.
    In the US with huge diversity of cultures, English remains a barrier to some. In fact if I’m not mistaken, there are more people in the US who identify Spanish as their first language than any other language.

    Interesting article, might give some insight to those who think Irish is dead and why so many still support it.

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    Mute Paul FitzGerald
    Favourite Paul FitzGerald
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:08 AM

    You never really “get” a language until you live in a country that speaks it. The grammatical nuances, the regional accents, but above all the slang.

    After 10 years learning classroom French, the first conversation I had in France started with “avez-vous du fue?” ….do I have fire? Am I on fire? I was utterly unable to figure out what was going on. (I was being asked for a light for a cigarette!)

    I think we place too much emphasis on the classroom environment, rather than just doing conversational stuff. I was fortunate enough to go to Italy for six months years ago and all I got was a few lessons before hand and was thrown into a working Italian environment. I learnt pretty quickly as I had to. My limited Italian mightn’t be grammatically perfect, but on a practical level it’s pretty good at a spoken level.

    I’m currently trying to learn Portuguese, but the area I go to in the Algarve has the Portuguese equivalent of a Kerry accent. You won’t find it in a book, you have to learn it the hard way with the locals pissing themselves laughing at your pronunciation.

    83
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    Mute Conor Gallagher
    Favourite Conor Gallagher
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 8:58 AM

    Language as a part of one’s identity, that makes sense…Perhaps it properly explains why a minority of Irish people boast about knowing no Irish after 14 years of it being “rammed down their throats” but then correct a polish person who mispronounces a word when they learn a few phrases as gaeilge (many non Anglophones are multilingualists and enjoy learning a language for the sake of learning, even if it is outside the top 200 languages in the world.).

    81
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    Mute john stewart
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:21 AM

    Tir gan teanga, Tir gan anam

    61
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    Mute Chris Kubik
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:34 AM

    I’m native German but was always very good at English. I’ve been living in Ireland for 8 years now, married to an Irish woman. My second language has now become my first and I tend to struggle with my German these days.

    59
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    Mute Niall O Dochartaigh
    Favourite Niall O Dochartaigh
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:44 AM

    I can speak,Irish, English and Swedish,does this make me a Cunning Lingquist or is that just a slip of the tongue ?

    36
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    Mute Lily Signoret
    Favourite Lily Signoret
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 11:05 AM

    I’m French but speak English fluently, and have spent the last 10 years in different English-speaking countries (I’m 30). I always found English easy to learn and improve, easier to play around with than French. Speaking English has definitely helped built the person I am today. It just suits me as a language and I love writing in English. I’m ashamed to say I sometimes struggle finding my words in French… But French is such a beautiful language, the imagery can be breathtaking, and I still get moved listening to songs or readings books in my native language.

    35
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    Mute Ciaran De Bhal
    Favourite Ciaran De Bhal
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:10 AM

    Many people would be better off learning their first language correctly before attempting a second.

    33
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    Mute John O Sullivan
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 12:30 PM

    Maybe learn a 2nd language first, and then revisit your opinion.

    14
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    Mute Ciaran De Bhal
    Favourite Ciaran De Bhal
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 1:15 PM

    Have done. Four languages in total. French, Spanish, Irish as well as English.

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    Mute Mark Sweetman
    Favourite Mark Sweetman
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 8:53 AM

    Ja naturlich!

    24
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    Mute Catherine Sims
    Favourite Catherine Sims
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 10:18 AM

    I have always thought I would be terrible at languages. Learning French at school was a nightmare. The teacher was either drunk or severely hung over. It wasn’t uncommon to get hit by the books she threw at the students when she wanted their attention. It’s soured me for sure. Then in her late thirties my sister decided to do a degree in German . She had no previous experience of the language and had the same teachers as I had in secondary school. I thought she was crazy but not only did she complete it she did fantastically well. I am actually thinking of trying to learn a language again now as a result. Maybe not French but Spanish or German.

    21
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    Mute SeekingUniverslTruth
    Favourite SeekingUniverslTruth
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 11:44 AM

    Sounds like the makings of a tribunal

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    Mute Michael Fagan
    Favourite Michael Fagan
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 11:54 AM

    Learning a second language is easy, when your living in a country where the second language is all around you TV, radio, newspapers,public signposts, etc,
    just travel around Europe, almost everyone speaks English to visitors, and their own language among themselves,
    Businessmen say they get a great advantage in international negotiating, with side remarks in their own language
    Such a pity that the people of Ireland (in general) don’t know how to speak their own language

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    Mute Nibbler Dibbler
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 4:11 PM

    Met an elderly gentleman in Denmark suffering from dementia. In his native tongue he could not remember anything not even if I had said yes when he offered me tea or coffee. However, remembering that he could speak excellent English when I had first met him ten years earlier, I switched the conversation into English. Amazing to discover that the dementia was gone and he was completely normal when using his second language!

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    Mute John Stafford
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 3:42 PM

    Learning a language is all about repetition and trying not be lethargic. Simple

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    Mute Amy Wallis
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    Aug 6th 2014, 10:40 AM

    I don’t agree with learning a language changes you as a person, your identity. If you’re learning in the country of the language (ie a foreign country) then you most likely – hopefully! – will grow and change, but not because of the language itself, but because of the experiences you have, something which has been happening to is all our lives to make us who we are today. Those experiences of living in a different country (or even simply the experiences had in a language class in your own country) send you down a different path than not doing so would, because it’s something new and strange, and you do new and differen things, meet new and different people. I would be a completely different person today, and would think of myself in a different way had I never moved to Italy, and stayed in Ireland.

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    Mute Fatima Anwar
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    Oct 5th 2014, 2:48 PM

    English language learning classes or learn English as a second language is now easier for ESL students with the help of online integrated English course

    1
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    Mute Konrad Bobrzecki
    Favourite Konrad Bobrzecki
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    Dec 14th 2014, 10:42 AM

    Not that long time ago I’ve tried http://www.bellsenglishonline.com/ ,since I’m not a beginner I started with Intermidiate package of their process,just to see if it will give me anything.Whole course is very intuitive and enjoyable.I think Bellsenglishonline is a worthwhile addition to anything else you might be using for your English learning.

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