Back-to-back storms cut power to thousands

BACK-TO-BACK storms have left thousands of people and businesses without power, as severe gusts of over 120kph battered Ireland last night.

Storm Jocelyn began to track around the country yesterday evening, before the clean-up operation from Storm Isha had even concluded.

By 7pm, Met Éireann was reporting gusts of 122kph at Mace Head in Co. Galway, 98kph at Roches Point in Co. Cork and 107kph at Finner in Co. Donegal.

Dublin Airport reported that eight flights – four arrivals and four departures – had been cancelled there by airlines.

‘Strong gusting winds this afternoon also resulted in seven goarounds, while two aircraft diverted to other airports and returned shortly after,’ it said.

At Shannon Airport, two commercial flights were diverted to Cork. The Port of Cork posted a video online of its pilots and launch crew battling ‘challenging conditions’ to make sure large commercial vessels got safely into harbour.

Around 16,000 ESB customers were still without power following Storm Isha and 18,000 customers had lost supply by 9pm lasst nightdue to Storm Jocelyn’s high winds, bringing the number of customers without power to 34,000. Around 221,000 premises had seen their power restored by ESB Networks since Monday’s peak outages of over 235,000.

The ESB warned that the stormy conditions were slowing their repair efforts in the north-west, and that some people could be without power for days.

Met Éireann meteorologist Aoife Kealy urged people to be mindful that Storm Jocelyn could aggravate damage to structures that have already been damaged by its predecessor.

Ms Kealy told RTÉ’s Today With Claire Byrne: ‘Even in areas that aren’t under an orange warning, it is important to note that it is going to be very windy, and again, there might be trees and so on that have been weakened by the storm over the weekend.

‘And whereas the storm of this magnitude might not necessarily always be this impactful, the fact that it’s following so quickly on the heels of Storm Isha is making it even more difficult,’ she added.

The coming days are expected to be milder with calmer conditions, but rain will persist.