SEVENTY-thousand homes and businesses were without power across Limerick and the wider Mid West region as Storm Éowyn raged on this Friday morning (January 24).
Throughout the night, the storm boomed and battered the county, hurtling record breaking hurricane force winds in from the west coast.
ESB Networks warned of the dangers posed by fallen live wires and advised the public and emergency services to stay away from any fallen cables and report such cases to it immediately on 1800 372 999.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme this morning, the service provider said that it may be into Saturday before realistic times for power restoration may appear on its PowerCheck website.
Met Eireann said the strongest gust speed on record of 182km/h, which was set in 1945 at Foynes, County Limerick, had provisionally been broken at Mace Head in Galway, when a gust speed of 183km/h was recorded at 5am.
Mace Head also recorded the strongest ever mean wind speed nationally (135km/h) breaking the record speed of 131km/h at Foynes in 1945.
A red wind warning, which came into effect for Limerick at 2am, is to last until at least midday when an orange warning comes into effect. Following this, a yellow warning will remain until at least 4pm for the entire country.
There is also going to be a risk of flooding into Saturday as we have had heavy rainfall throughout the night, however no serious tidal issues were yet reported locally.
All flood barriers are in place in Limerick City and at Foynes Port. Sandbags have been put in place to protect vulnerable properties in lowlands near water in Askeaton.
There was a scheduled high tide at 1am this morning but there were no serious flooding incidents reported by Limerick City and County Council. There is another scheduled high tide at 1.30pm this afternoon.
Several electrical stores in the city and county reported they had sold out of power banks, generators, and torches as people prepared to sit out the storm, and you’d be hard pressed to find a loaf of bread in the shops – which are all closed anyway until the red warning ends later this morning.
All schools, third level institutions, public transport services, and court services are closed today, resuming normal services on Monday. All non-urgent healthcare appointments have also been cancelled throughout the day, with the HSE to contact patients in the coming days for re-schedule appointments.
Additional emergency beds have been provided to any persons sleeping rough in Limerick.
Electrical outages can be monitored on ESB’s PowerCheck.ie, while updates on water supply can be found on Water.ie.
Meanwhile, Limerick City and County Council is operating an incident control room to ensure a coordinated response to any incidents arising throughout the county.
The public can visit the Limerick.ie, where there are telephone numbers and email addresses to contact to report fallen trees, blocked roads, or similar issues caused by this severe storm.
The public are urged to call 999 or 112 for any serious threat to life or any other emergencies.
Impacts from this storm may include danger to life and property, extremely dangerous travelling conditions, power, and communications outages and coastal flooding, so the advice from the authorities is not to take any risks and to stay indoors.
Limerick City and County Council said a number of incidents had been reported to it (on 061 556 000) overnight, including: reports of a tree down blocking road at Coolreiry in Castleconnell; a cable reported on the road at junction of Henry Street and Mallow Street in the city; electricity cables down on road in Templeathea; reports of debris from a roof on the road on Glentworth Street in the city; and a metal structure reported on road near SuperValu in Abbeyfeale.
Members of the public can continue to log issues on 061 556000 or email [email protected].
The Council said its crews “will mobilise after the red weather warning has expired and once conditions are deemed safe”.
“Limerick Fire and Rescue Service have not had to mobilise to any incidents as of 7am. Crews will only respond to life threatening emergencies during the red wind alert.”
More updates can be found as they come on limerickpost.ie, Limerick.ie/eowyn, on social media, and the Met Éireann website.
