Storm Ophelia: Efforts to restore power to 6,000 resume

Repair crews were hampered by heavy rain and high winds during Storm Brian

Work is resuming on Sunday to restore power to around 6,000 homes, farms and businesses which are still without power six days after ex-hurricane Ophelia hit the country.

The restoration work was hampered on Saturday by Storm Brian which brought heavy rain and high winds. It is understood the majority of the power outages are from Ophelia but a small number occurred yesterday during Storm Brian.

Despite the assistance of repair crews from the North it is expected to be early next week before all repair work is completed.

ESB Networks have now restored power to 370,000 people who suffered an outage following Ophelia.

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ESB Networks said it was "acutely aware of how difficult the situation is for all of customers who remain without power". Counties Cork and Wexford are among those worst affected by the power outages.

The company reminded people not to approach fallen power lines but to report them on 1850 372 999.

Updates on the power outages can be found on powercheck.ie.

Phones

Eir has said that the number of customers without phone and internet connections has been reduced to 20,000.

Water

Irish Water said the number of customers without water was now currently at 1,000 and the number at risk of losing supply stood at 100.Cork is again the worst-affected county, with 470 customers without water there.

The water supply will be shut off on Sunday night in parts of Westmeath to enable the water levels in the reservoirs to replenish following Storm Ophelia.

Irish Water and Westmeath County Council told customers it was "necessary" to shut off the water supply to allow the levels in the reservoirs to rise and to avoid further disruption to customers.

In Wexford, one of the counties worst affected by outages the council warned that the number of people without power may increase due to Storm Brian.