NI to escape worst of latest storm but 4,000 still without power

Bronagh is set to batter parts of the UK and Ireland today, a day after two people were killed during Storm Ali.

The Met Office and Met Eireann have warned of the possibility of a danger to life and damage to buildings.

Storm Bronagh developed across parts of Wales and southwest England yesterday evening, before spreading further eastwards across England.

Heavy rain and gale force winds were expected, but it looks like Northern Ireland will escape the worst this time around.

The Met Office said today would see a cloudy start in Northern Ireland with some showery rain, briefly heavy in places.

It will then brighten up, with a few brief showers, mainly in the north and west, with brisk north westerly winds.

It will feel cool, with a maximum temperature of 14C.

The outlook for Saturday to Monday is bright and breezy with the odd passing shower.

It will become dry and more settled by Monday.

Meanwhile, NIE Networks said around 4,000 customers here were still without power last night.

Emergency teams had restored electricity to over 90,000 customers over the last 24 hours. The company said that although it expected the majority of customers to be back on supply by last night, those with isolated faults affecting less than 10 properties may be off into today and in rare cases into tomorrow.

A spokesperson for NIE Networks said: “Now that we have fully surveyed the network we are finding electricity lines with over 40 individual faults.

“This is a repeating picture across Northern Ireland, presenting significant logistical and technical challenges that require large numbers of resources to repair.

“At any one time we have over 500 employees focused on restoration efforts and this level of intensity will be retained until all customers have power restored.

“Customers can continue to contact us online, over the phone or on social media.”

A helicopter has been monitoring the electricity network in the east of Northern Ireland as restoration efforts continue to reconnect the remaining customers without power.

The aircraft worked its way across Northern Ireland over the course of yesterday, targeting areas where there was known network damage.

By flying over the powerlines engineers can quickly identify damage in hard-to-reach areas.

Teams were deployed from first light to deal with faults on the main electricity lines.

These faults had to be repaired first in order to restore the backSTORM bone of the network before attention turned to smaller and more isolated faults.

A spokesperson for NIE Networks said many of the faults dealt with yesterday “require significant work and multiple teams to cut and remove fallen trees, excavation, pole replacement and restringing of lines. This takes time and resources”.

Over 50 contact agents are responding to customer enquiries online, over the phone and on social media.

Meanwhile, friends of a woman killed on the west coast of Ireland during Storm Ali have said she seldom left Switzerland and was looking forward to her time in the west of Ireland.

Mother-of-three Elvira Ferraii (56) died when the caravan she had been sleeping in at a campsite in Clifden, Co Galway, was blown off a cliff and onto a beach during gale force winds.

“We are deeply shocked by this tragic accident,” her friend Rolf Weber told Swiss newspaper Blick.

Ms Ferraii had recently moved to the Steinmaur area in the canton of Zurich and had separated from her husband 14 years ago.

It is understood Ms Ferraii had travelled to Ireland alone for five weeks to attend an English language course.

A neighbour in Steinmaur where she had bought an apartment said she was well liked and was “extremely nice as well as sporty”.