More than 240,000 without power in NI after Storm Éowyn batters region
By Rebecca Black and David Young, PA
More than 240,000 homes and businesses are without power in Northern Ireland after Storm Éowyn battered the region.
Hundreds of trees came down during the storm, damaging properties and blocking roads.
The strongest gust of wind recorded on Friday was 92.2mph (148.4km/h) at Killowen in Co Down.
A Met Office red warning remains in place across Northern Ireland until 2pm.
The record for a gust in Northern Ireland is 124mph (199.6 km/h), which was recorded in Kilkeel in Co Down in January 1974.
Schools, colleges, courts and many shops are closed, while public transport is suspended and some health appointments have been postponed amid a top-level red warning for wind.
Dozens of flights have been cancelled at Belfast International and Belfast City airports.
The Met Office red alert came into effect at 7am.
The forecaster warned of “very dangerous conditions” and “widespread disruption”.
The Aurora Leisure centre in Bangor, Co Down, sustained significant damage to its roof, and several large trees crashed down in Cyprus Avenue, a tree-lined street in east Belfast made famous by a Van Morrison song.
NIE Networks activated its emergency plans in response to the storm, and efforts to restore power will start after 2pm when the red weather warning has been lifted.
Alex Houston, network operations manager for NIE Networks, urged people to stay clear of any damaged equipment or broken lines.
“Where trees have fallen they may have impacted on a power line even if damage isn’t immediately obvious, so please look out for power lines and, if in doubt, stay clear,” he said.
“We will only be able to begin to mobilise our crews when the red alert passes.
“At that stage we will be focusing on making the network safe but our plea is for everyone to remain vigilant and clear of any electricity lines.”
In advance of the storm, police said Friday was expected to have the strongest winds in the region since the Boxing Day storm in 1998, which caused widespread disruption.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly urged people to stay at home until the storm subsides.
“We’re asking the public to be very safe, to be very cautious, to take every precaution to ensure that they don’t take any unnecessary travel, please just stay at home if you can,” Ms O’Neill told BBC Radio Ulster.
“We’re in the eye of the storm now. We are in the period of the red alert.
“People can see for themselves, the wind has been very much picking up overnight.
“We’ve just been briefed by the Civil Contingencies Group, by the PSNI, who are in the lead in terms of the storm response, and they tell us that the situation is, as we have outlined yesterday, we’re still in a period of jeopardy in terms of the damage that potentially could be caused as a result of the storm.
“I think the real message we want to get across to your listeners this morning is to please be ultra cautious, to please stay at home if you can and actually we will see how the storm will rage.
“But the scale of the storm, the level of wind that we’ve experienced across the island, which is something that’s never been seen before.
“The threat is real, and we only can emphasise to people, please take every precaution that you absolutely can.”
Ms Little-Pengelly said: “The strong advice is to stay home.
“And that’s important, of course, because if people go out, the risk to life is from debris because of the high winds, if people go out and get into a situation, then that is calling out those essential workers that are there.
“We don’t want people to have to come out to deal with those.
“So we are advising everybody stays at home. There’s a significant outage on the electricity.”
She described a “very serious storm”.
“The storm will blow over,” Ms Little-Pengelly said.
“The worst of it is here at the moment and over the next number of hours. But, of course, we will get through that.”
