Thousands of homes without power as Storm Eunice hits Ireland

Have you been affected?

Friday is upon us and so too is the much-anticipated Storm Eunice. The storm has made landfall in the southwest of Ireland, bringing gusts of 130 kilometres per hour along with heavy rain, sleet and even some snowy conditions. Schools across numerous counties are closed on Friday in response to the event. Speaking on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1, Met Éireann's Liz Coleman noted that the storm is expected to track eastwards as the day opens up. https://twitter.com/MetEireann/status/1494565279040524292 At the time of writing on Friday morning, thousands of homes across Ireland are without power as a result of Storm Eunice's arrival into the country. Roughly 55,000 homes in total are said to be without power as of 9am. It is estimated that over 20,000 houses have been affected in Kerry alone, while there are widespread reports of outages across the country.

Addressing the situation on Morning Ireland, Brian Tapley of ESB Networks said that they will know the full extent of the outages by midday and that ESB will be doing all it can to restore power as soon as possible.

Anyone affected by power outages is encouraged to report the fault directly via ESB. Cork, Kerry and Clare have been subject to a Status Red weather warning since 3am on Friday, though that warning will be downgraded to Status Orange after 8am. A separate Status Red warning is in place in Waterford until 11am. Iarnrod Éireann has said that all services are currently in operation as of Friday morning, though some select routes are operating at reduced speed. https://twitter.com/IrishRail/status/1494571944548655105