Red weather alerts are now in place across much of Ireland with Storm Éowyn battering the country in a big way right now and gusts of over 170km/h reported in the west overnight. While the entire island will come under the highest level of wind warnings in the next couple of hours, as it stands, the red alerts are in place for Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Clare, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo.
The highest winds recorded so far were in Ceann Mhása in Connemara, Co Galway, where gusts as high as 174km/h have been recorded.
The ESB’s PowerCheck website is currently showing outages all over the country with at least 150,000 homes and businesses without power as of now.
At least 200 flights to and from Dublin Airport have already been cancelled this morning. Every flight due to depart up until 8.45am has been cancelled with the exception of one flight to Abu Dhabi at 8.25am which currently has a delayed status and a Tenerife-bound flight due to leave at 8.45 also “delayed”.
It is interesting, perhaps, that the only airline that is currently listing most of its flights in the hours after 9am as being on schedule is Ryanair.
It is even worse when it comes to arrivals with nothing coming in until after 9am, according to the Live Arrivals board on the Dublin Airport website right now. People hoping to travel are being advised to keep in close contact with their airlines before heading to that airport – or any airport in the country.
Carlow Weather is reporting that Storm Éowyn has just broken the record gust for Ireland, one that has stood for almost a century. According to data just published from Met Éireann a gust of 183km/h was recorded at Mace Head in Galway at 5am. The old record stood since 1945 was 182km/h and recorded at Foynes. At the risk of stating the very obvious, this is going to be a big, big storm.
The most recent update from Dublin Airport will not make for happy reading for anyone coming or going this morning.
And another wind record has just been broken, this time in Foynes, Co Limerick, where a gust of 183km/h has just been recorded.
“This is a storm like no storm you have ever experienced in Ireland,” Alan O’Reilly from Carlow Weather says.
Red wind warnings have just come into force for Cavan, Monaghan, Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wicklow, Roscommon and Tipperary.
This is only the third time Met Éireann has issued the highest-level alert for the entire country.
The first was during Storm Ophelia in 2017 and then again for Storm Emma in 2018. Donegal will be the last county where the weather warnings are lifted with the red alert valid there until 3pm on Friday.
More than half a million homes and businesses are currently without power across the country. According to the most recent data, 560,000 properties have no electricity right now with few – if any – counties escaping outages.
In a statement, ESB Networks said its teams will commence restoring power where safe to do so
“There has been unprecedented, widespread and extensive damage to electricity infrastructure so far with power outages nationwide affecting 560,000 customers as of 6am; we anticipate significant further outages as Storm Éowyn moves across the country
“An Important Public Safety Message: If you come across fallen wires or damaged electricity network, never, ever touch or approach these as they are live and extremely dangerous. Please report any damage to electricity infrastructure by calling 1800 372 999
“ESB Networks crews and partner contractors will be deployed when safe to do so, to assess the network and work to safely restore power as quickly as possible in challenging conditions.”
It is worth noting that hurricane-force winds will sweep over parts of the west, northwest and north this morning.
Flights to and from Shannon Airport have been cancelled with gusts of almost 140km/h recorded there this morning. In a statement, the airport has said it “remains open and our staff continue to monitor this extreme weather event. Our full schedule will resume once weather conditions permit”.
A status red wind warning is now in effect for 25 counties, with Donegal and Northern Ireland to fall into the same category at 7am.
The senior forecaster at Met Éireann, Gerry Murphy, has just issued a sobering assessment of what is happening and what is to come with more structural damage, more power outages and more disruption on the way in the hours ahead
Speaking on Morning Ireland he said Éowyn was an “extreme storm and it has already broken records for the all-time mean wind speed and all-time gust for Ireland.”
At Mace Head in Galway at 4am there was a mean speed of 135km/h which breaks the previous record of 131km/h and at 5am there was a gust of 183km/h, which breaks the previous record of 182km/h.
“This is a very, very serious storm [and] the winds are very, very strong. As you’d expect they are strongest over the western half of the country but they’re going to be very strong right the way up through the midlands as well,” he said.
“This morning we can expect further power outages because the winds are not yet at their strongest over counties over the northern half of the country [and] as you go through the midlands in particular and especially the north midlands through the morning those winds are going to increase. In fact they’re going to increase over much of the northern half of the country.”
He said “structural damage is almost inevitable really [and] the messaging of the red warnings is to adhere to those diligently and to stay at home this morning because it is a very, very stormy morning ... people need to take the utmost care. It will all be over by mid afternoon so it’s not much to give up on a morning in order to stay safe.”
This tweet from Met Éireann will give you a sense of just how bad things are getting.
Galway is a hardy old place and used to big storms, but things were looking very bad in Salthill overnight.
Ireland West Airport in Co Mayo will be “non-operational” until 1pm, and the airport has said all passengers due to travel on flights scheduled between 8am and 2pm should not to travel to the airport. “The terminal building will not be accessible to members of the public during this time,” it said.
If you live close to a building site and have cranes towering over you, Sean Downey from the Construction Industry Federation has some words of comfort.
Speaking on Morning Ireland he said although “cranes would be something that would be certainly very visible if you’re living near a site that has cranes ... that’s probably something that people look at and might have a concern about. But that would not be something that would be a big concern for me. It is something that people take into account whenever they’re building the site.
“They’re traditionally part of the permanent structure of the foundations as they’re being erected and they’re actually built to withstand very, very strong winds so I would not be concerned with that at all.”
As of now, the entire island of Ireland is under a status red wind warning as a result of Storm Éowyn.
It would be impossible to detail all the roads blocked right now as a result of fallen trees but a snapshot does indicate how widespread the problems are.
The N59 on the Skreen side of Dromore West in Sligo is impassable as a result of a fallen tree. Wires are down on the same road on the approach to Ballisodare
There are multiple trees down on the N4 close to Newtownforbes, Co Longford, with the village blocked on both sides.
Most roads out of Longford have trees down while multiple incidents have also been reported in Athlone and across Dublin.
The storm is still raging all over the country but as the morning progresses it will be a country of two halves with the worst still to come for the northern half of the island and a slow – very slow – easing further south.
It is important to stress that red warnings are still in place for the whole country but from around 10am winds to the south will “gradually ease”, according to forecaster Gerry Murphy.
“The main message is that north of that line roughly from west Clare to Dublin over the coming hours the winds are going to increase further.”
We are not there yet, not by a long shot.
And all the authorities are warning that even when the red warnings are lifted, the country will be under an orange warning for much of the day.
Sheila Kavanagh from Vodafone has been on the radio saying that around 90,000 of its customers are without home broadband as a result of power outages while around 10 per cent of its mobile network sites are currently offline.
She noted that it is a “fast-progressing storm so we anticipate that the storm will pass quickly and obviously – and only when it’s safe to do so – we will be dispatching our field teams. We have tripled our field resources [so we] can deal with this storm as quickly as possible and recover services.”
Dublin Fire Brigade has just published an interactive map of storm-related incidents across the county.
The vast, vast majority of flights to and from Dublin up to 9.30am have now been cancelled with many others after that point also gone.
Some 600 people are in Dublin Airport’s two terminals this morning compared to around 10,000 that might there on any other Friday.
The DAA’s Graeme McQueen said that “planes can’t take off and land at the moment so nothing is happening and we’re not expecting anything certainly before just before 9am.”
He said that was when the first scheduled departure is at the moment “but given the way the winds are at the moment that’s a wait and see”.
The airlines are meeting now “to decide on their schedules for the rest of the day,” McQueen said as he urged people “to keep in touch with the airlines to find out what the status is of their flight [and] if they’re flying today”.
A serious road incident has been reported in Lifford in Co Donegal.
“Unfortunately we are attending a serious road traffic collision on the N14, just north of Lifford,” said Supt Liam Geraghty.
“We’re not in a position to give any more details at the moment until we get to the scene and we assess what has happened. This does exemplify that this is a very dangerous and life-threatening storm. This incident actually happened in an Orange wind warning in the Donegal area which has now gone to a red warning. Our appeal to people is to shelter.”
Public transport has ground to a halt across the country with plans to get things moving again in at least some parts of the country from around midday although that is by no means set in stone.
Unprecedented and widespread is how the ESB is describing the outages across the State as day breaks, and while a fresh update is due in the next few minutes, as of now well over half a million properties are without power.
It’s pretty wild in Clare this morning.
At least 715,000 homes and businesses around the Republic are currently without power, the ESB have just confirmed. To put that number into context, just under 400,000 homes and businesses were left without power during Storms Darragh and Ophelia. ESB Networks is also warning that the number is likely to increase.
The full statement from ESB Networks paints a very grim picture of what is happening across the country right now.
“Extreme, damaging and destructive winds associated with Storm Éowyn have continued to cause widespread and extensive damage to the electricity network across the country with over 715,000 homes, farms and businesses (as at 8am) without power.
“With Met Éireann Status Red and Orange wind warnings remaining in place for the entire country until later this afternoon, more power outages can be expected throughout the day as the storm tracks northwards.
“At current numbers, the damage to the electricity network and impact on customers has been unprecedented. ESB Networks continue to closely monitor the storm impact on power supplies and all available resources stand ready to mobilise once safe to do so.
“From our experience of previous significant weather events and due to the severity of Storm Éowyn, we expect that power restoration will take a significant number of days.
“Given the extent of the damage nationwide estimated restoration times (ERTs) will only be provided once our teams have assessed network faults and these will then be available to view throughout Saturday on www.PowerCheck.ie.
“Our customer contact centre agents will be supporting customers throughout Storm Éowyn but will not be in a position to provide outage information until the network assessment has been fully conducted.
“An Important Public Safety Message: If you come across fallen wires or damaged electricity network, never, ever touch or approach these as they are LIVE and extremely dangerous. Please report any damage to electricity infrastructure by calling 1800 372 999.”
Irish Water has said that water-treatment plants that serve around 115,000 homes have lost power. While the plants have reserves, people have been asked to conserve water over the day to ensure that the reserves don’t run out. People can find real-time info on the supply in their area here.
Some 93,000 homes and businesses across Northern Ireland are without electricity, and police there have said there are more than 70 reports of trees down and other obstructions on the roads. Flights have also been cancelled, including 16 departures and 16 arrivals at Belfast International Airport and 23 departures and 20 arrivals at Belfast City Airport.
It is still looking very red all over Ireland as this map shows.
ESB Networks has just given very bleak assessment of what lies ahead with the number of homes and businesses without power likely to rise well over the current number of 715,000 and some people likely to be without power for a week or even longer.
Brian Tapley, the ESB Networks regional manager, said only emergency calls could be answered until the end of the red-wind warning and said the Air Corps and Army would be called upon to help with the ESB power outages in the days ahead to help reconnect as many people as fast as possible.
“It’s widespread and the damage is extensive to the network,” he said. “It is going to be easily a week if not more before we have all customers restored and unfortunately that the figure of 715,000 will increase over the course of today because we’re still in the middle of the red alert.”
Mr Tapley said the ESB could only deal with emergency calls this morning and “will be doing our damage assessment in the afternoon as soon as the red alert passes”.
He said it would not be possible to give accurate restoration times on the ESB Powercheck website “probably until Saturday until we’ve put eyes on as much of our network as possible”.
He said all its crews were standing by and “plans have been stood up for a number of days now. We’ve reached out to other utilities in the UK and likewise they have with us so there’s a lot of impact to this storm not just in Ireland.
He said the ESB would also “get support from the Air Corps, the Army and will work closely with local authorities.
The number of flights to and from Dublin Airport that have been cancelled has climbed to 230 with more likely to fall victim to the storm in the hours ahead.
The Department of Housing has just confirmed that the Humanitarian Assistance Scheme will be available to provide support to those living in properties directly affected by Storm Éowyn.
It provides income-tested financial assistance to households affected by a severe weather event and is administered by the Community Welfare Service.
The scheme aims to lighten the hardship rather than provide full compensation for damage.
The scheme may cover:
- emergency support payments, such as food, clothing and personal items
- damage to your home and its essential contents, such as carpets, flooring, furniture, household appliances and bedding
- structural damage
The scheme does not cover:
- losses covered by an insurance policy
- loss of items deemed to be inessential or luxury items
- commercial, agricultural or business losses
- structural loss or damage to rented accommodation
- any additional properties that are not occupied and lived in as the primary residence
- repair or replacement of motor vehicles
Harold’s Cross Rd has been closed after scaffolding collapsed.
The travel plans of thousands of people are up in the air this morning but what are your rights if you are one of them?
Which? Travel has this.
“Many travellers will understandably be concerned about flight delays or cancellations as a result of Storm Eowyn.
“If your flight is cancelled or delayed, you’re unlikely to be owed compensation by the airline as weather events are considered ‘extraordinary circumstances’,” said Which travel expert Guy Hobbs. “irlines should still be offering assistance, this could include free food and drink - usually in the form of vouchers - as well as overnight accommodation if it becomes necessary,” he said.
“If your flight is cancelled, your airline is legally obliged to find you alternative flights, including with rival carriers, as soon as possible, or you can opt to be refunded. If you take a refund, be aware that your airline will no longer need to assist you in completing your journey,” Mr Hobbs continued.
“If you’re travelling today, allow extra time for your journey and check with your airline for the latest updates before setting off. It’s also worth checking the terms of your travel insurance to see if you are able to recoup any other expenses you may incur as a result of the delays, such as car hire or airport parking fees.”
On some levels Dublin appears to have escaped the worst of the storm so far but every now and then there is a gust and it is like the roof is going to come off. That is just one reason people should stay in place - the risk of falling trees and flying debris is real everywhere.... even if it looks relatively calm.
Important point being made by Met Éireann as parts of the country get ready to move from Red warnings to Orange ones.
On a normal Friday there might be 1,000 Dublin Buses travelling across the city. This morning that number is zero.
Two Ryanair flights departed from Dublin Airpot over the last few minutes, the first two planes to take off this morning. According to the Dublin Airport live departures board, one was bound for Birmingham and one had Faro as its destination. It will be interesting to see how many passengers were on board given that the entire country was under a red alert and people are still being urged to stay in place and avoid potentially dangerous travel.
So, one minute you’re saying Dublin looks like it escaped the worst of the storm and the next your are looking at a social media post showing an ice rink in Blanchardstown effectively levelled by the wind.
