Thousands of properties in Northern Ireland remain without power after Storm Amycaused Havoc across the UK. The storm, which made landfall on Friday, left more than 65,000 homes without power on Saturday and caused a host of travel disruption across the country.
As of Sunday morning, around 3,000 homes remained without power, with Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) saying that they were doing their “very best to get as many as possible reconnected today”. The “vast majority” of properties without power in Northern Ireland will have it restored on Sunday, crews have advised. Alex Houston, NIE Networks operations manager said: “At this stage we would encourage anyone who has not yet reported their power cut to contact the customer centre on 03457 643 643 so we can ensure all faults are reported and in the restoration process.”
In the Republic of Ireland, a man in his 40s died in County Donegal on Friday in a “weather-related incident”, and about 10,000 properties are still without power.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), the distribution network operator for the north of Scotland, said 34,000 customers remain without power and almost 50,000 customers have been reconnected as of 8.30pm on Saturday.
The company said hundreds of additional team members were working on SSEN’s response to the storm which it said saw wind speeds reach 96mph at lower levels on the island of Tiree, and gusts of more than 100mph in exposed areas.
The company said the strength of the winds has had a “considerable impact” on the network.
SSEN’s head of customer operations for the north of Scotland, Nik Wheeler, said: “Amy’s winds have continued to blow at damaging speeds, and more network damage is expected before the end of Saturday.
“Engineering and tree-cutting teams are well placed to respond, and they’ve been doing so as safely and quickly as they can in what are challenging conditions.
“I want to reassure our customers that every resource at our disposal is being directed at the reconnection operation, and our efforts to ensure people are kept well informed and looked after while these essential repairs are carried out.”
A yellow wind warning issued by the Met Office expired at 23:59 BST on Saturday.
A peak wind gust of 92mph (148km/ph) – provisionally a new October record – was recorded at the Magilligan weather station in County Londonderry on Friday.
Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins thanked those who had worked in “very dangerous and challenging” conditions, as the storm battered the UK throughout Saturday.
She said: “They have been working hard to clear the affected parts of our road network, to mitigate the effects of flooding through proactive measures, maintaining critical drainage infrastructure as well as restoring power and water to homes and getting the public transport network back to normal.”