A man in his 20s died and a man in his 40s, his colleague, was seriously injured after a falling tree struck them at a water pumping station in the Slieve Gullion Forest Park area of Newry yesterday.
The pair were utility engineers, working on behalf of Northern Ireland Water.
A spokeswoman said, “NI Water is aware of an incident involving employees of one of our contractors. Emergency services attended to two individuals. Sadly one of these people died at the scene.
She added that NI Water was working closely with the emergency services, the Health and Safety Executive and the PSNI and would do everything possible to assist. “Our thoughts are with the families of those involved at this time,” she said.
A postmortem is due to be carried out on the deceased.
A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said it received a call at 12.13pm saying a tree had struck two men in the Drumintee Road area, at the entrance of the park.
The injured man was last night reported to be in a serious condition at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.
As severe gusts of wind swept across the island, the North’s strongest September gust since records began, 91 mph, was recorded in Killowen, Co Down.
There was significant damage to the electricity and road networks with scores of roads, including a section of the M1, closed after trees and power lines fell.
Around 100,000 homes and businesses in the North were left without electricity as the storm progressed throughout the day.
An oil truck driver was hospitalised for non-life threatening injuries after a tree fell on his vehicle in south Belfast. A dentist from Tyrone had to get stitches to his head after he suffered cuts down the side of his body when a tree smashed through the roof of his car. The adverse weather caused damage to a number of cars, homes and gardens across the North.
Sailings to and from Scotland, and between Rathlin and Ballycastle were cancelled, and train services between Belfast and Dublin were also severely disrupted. Some passengers were stuck on the Enterprise train for more than seven hours due to debris on the track and hundreds of bus services were delayed.
There were also delays at Belfast City and Belfast International airports, with some flight cancellations at the latter. Belfast City Council closed Belfast Zoo and all its parks, playgrounds, and playing fields for the day. Derry City and Strabane District Council closed all its park areas and cemeteries, and Foyle Bridge was also closed for a number of hours due to the adverse weather.
Entrance doors at the Titanic Belfast visitor attraction were damaged by strong winds, but it remained open.