LAST UPDATE | 8 Dec 2024

THOUSANDS OF HOMES are still without power following a day of extremely strong and gusty winds brought by Storm Darragh.

As of 5pm today, approximately 55,000 homes, farms and businesses remain without power, as local councils, emergency workers and the ESB continue to work on repairs to damaged power cables across the country.

Power was restored to 340,000 customers since work began yesterday, after a total of 395,000 customers lost power – a similar impact to that of Storm Ophelia in 2017.

Over 370,000 homes & businesses without power across Ireland after #StormDarragh. Thank you to ESB crews working to restore power. This is major work & will take some time to be fully completed. Other agencies will assist where appropriate too & met this morning to plan that work

— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) December 7, 2024

The ESB warned that significant numbers may be without power for for a number of days “due to the severity and significant scale of the damage”, as an assessment of the extent of damage continues.

“We acknowledge the disruption to family and commercial life this causes, and thank customers across the country, especially those who will remain without power over the coming days, for their patience as our crews work to safely restore power,” the ESB said in a statement.

An Post said that it expects all of its post offices to be open for business tomorrow as the ESB works to restore power to all of those affected. It is making deliveries today in “many parts of the country” due to the impact of the storm on its services. 

Uisce Éireann is continuing its work to reconnect customers to water supply.

However, it warned that there a number of locations that will take longer to restore supply to. These are generally areas where ongoing power outages have impacted treatment plants and network pumping stations. 

“Current estimates indicate that 35 of our 698 water treatment plants are currently affected due to storm-related issues,” a spokesperson said. 

They include the Manorcunningham and Letterkenny areas of Donegal, Carrick-on-Shannon in Co Leitrim, Longford town, Trim in Co Meath and parts of North Cork around Kanturk and Newmarket.

Highest gusts of 141 km/h were recorded at Mace Head in Galway on Friday night, with gusts of 120 km/h and 115 km/h recorded in Clare and Cork.

Mobile and broadband provider, eir said Donegal and Mayo were the hardest-hit counties in terms of outages, but service disruptions were felt nationwide.

“More than 35,000 broadband faults, 20,000 fixed voice issues and approximately 15% of mobile network site outages have been registered,” it said.

Several Irish airports and train lines were also impacted by the adverse conditions on Saturday.

Includes reporting by Emma Hickey