ESB Networks said 108,000 homes, farms or businesses remained without power on Wednesday night as a multi-national effort was underway to restore power after damage caused by Storm Éowyn last week.
The utility said it anticipates the “vast majority” of customers who lost power during Storm Éowyn will have supply restored by Friday night – but tens of thousands of customers could have to wait until next week to get power back.
In the immediate aftermath of the storm that brought 183km/h record-breaking wind gusts, 768,000 customers were without electricity supply.
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Customers still without electricity are expected to have their power restored by Friday. However, thousands could still be without power into next week.
Repair crews from Austria, Finland and the UK are working alongside Irish crews to help restore supply to the worst hit areas.
The ESB said it will have to replace 3,000 electricity poles and 900km of cable countrywide.
The National Health Protection Office said it continues to monitor for any emergent threats or impacts to public health following Storm Éowyn through surveillance and reporting systems.
Meanwhile, a Galway GP has spoken about how her practice will now have to dispose of vaccines due to power outages.
A GP in Galway, Dr Catherine Sweeney, said there was still no electricity at her practice in Dunmore and so staff were operating from the kitchen of her home in Claremorris which was 25 minutes away.
Dr Sweeney, who was born in Glasnevin, said it felt like there were “two worlds” between the east and the west of the country and said there was a “sense of us being forgotten”.
“We’re not seeing any action on the ground. We are not seeing anyone coming to assist. This is a crisis situation in large swathes of the west of Ireland. This is becoming a humanitarian crisis. “If you have no water, if you have no electricity, if you have no communications, if you have limited access to medical care, that is essentially a humanitarian crisis. And there is, in my opinion, huge inaction by our elected representatives.”
Dr Sweeney said that they had no communications from any officials or from the HSE.
“We are providing services that include childhood vaccines, acute illness, palliative care. And we are now in a situation where all our vaccines will have to be disposed of. So childhood vaccines will have to be deferred, delayed. We have no idea when we will get the next stock in. We have to wait until our electricity is back. So it’s a very difficult situation to find yourself in,” she said.
Meanwhile, Uisce Éireann’s said there are still 7,500 premises without water, down from a high of 200,000 in the immediate aftermath of Storm Éowyn. In areas where water has not yet returned, alternative water supplies are being provided to support local communities it said.
Independent TD for Roscommon-Galway Michael Fitzmaurice has called on the Government to “send out” the Army and civil defence to call on the elderly and most vulnerable in society who are still without power after Storm Éowyn.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show, he also said that Uisce Éireann should have been better prepared for the storm and that the utility needed to “cop on”.
Meanwhile, the Roscommon resident who confronted Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Tuesday explained that she took the opportunity to express the frustration of her neighbours because this was the fourth time in 12 months that they had lost power.
“Each storm it just gets worse and the power goes out for longer,” Rachel Connolly told Newstalk Breakfast.
Ms Connolly asked why there could not be stores of generators in place around the country that could be utilised when storms hit. The climate was changing, she said, such extreme weather events were going to become more frequent and more intense, yet there was no preparation, just “a knee-jerk response” from the Government.
Living without power was difficult, Ms Connolly said, but living without water was much more difficult. People in the west felt there were two words to describe their situation, “forgotten and ignored”.
The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has expressed “deep concern” about the impact Storm Éowyn is having on farm families.
Teresa Roche, IFA farm family and social affairs chair, said the loss of power and water has disrupted farming activities and left many households struggling to manage basic needs.
One of the main items on the Cabinet agenda on Wednesday was the preparedness for, and reaction to, Storm Éowyn, with sources saying a “robust discussion” took place at the first full and official meeting of Ministers. It is understood that Ministers discussed the ongoing damage caused by the storm. Galway West super junior Hildegarde Naughton is understood to have told the meeting that strategic hubs will be needed for future storm events, and that the State would need to build up extra generator capacity. Two sources said she referenced the supports available to Scottish households suffering the effects of the storm, who are provided with food and accommodation provisions in certain circumstances. “There was an openness to this idea an Irish context,” a source said.
The EU is sending 17 power generators, 13 of which will come from the EU’s strategic reserve based in Poland, while Denmark has mobilised an extra four via the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism, according to the European Commission.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that “everything possible” is being done to ensure services are restored.
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