No electricity for thousands of homes after Storm Amy hits Northern Ireland

Some homes in Northern Ireland are still without electricity in the aftermath of Storm Amy.

The storm, which made landfall on Friday, caused damage to power lines, schools and vehicles.

As of Saturday night, 9,000 homes were without power.

NIE Networks said it hoped to restore power to the vast majority of these properties by Sunday morning.

But warned it could take up to Monday evening for some areas to be fully reconnected.

In the Republic of Ireland, a man in his 40s died in County Donegal on Friday in a “weather-related incident”, and about 13,000 homes are still without power.

The Education Authority (EA) said 18 schools in Northern Ireland had reported “storm-related incidents” – mainly damage to roofs and fallen trees – to its maintenance services.

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.

At the height of the storm, about 65,000 properties were without an electricity supply after strong winds brought trees down and damaged the network.

NIE said the worst affected areas for power outages are Craigavon, Enniskillen, Omagh, Downpatrick, Ballymena and Dungannon, with community assistance centres opened for those without electricity.

Alex Houston, NIE’s Networks operations manager, said teams would be working around the clock to reconnect all those without power.

In the Republic of Ireland, some 184,000 properties lost power on Friday, but by late Saturday evening that number had fallen to 13,000.

The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) said the majority of those still affected should have their power back by Sunday evening, but warned some in the worst affected areas may be without electricity into early next week.

The worst affected counties are Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo and Roscommon.

On Saturday, Uisce Éireann said about 4,000 homes – mainly in County Donegal – are without water and that crews were working to restore supply “as quickly as possible”.

To report faults or emergencies you can contact:

• Northern Ireland Housing Executive: 03448 920 901
• Gas networks: 0800 002001
• NI Water: 03457 44 00 88 or visit niwater.com
• Flooding Incident Line: 0300 2000 100
• NIE Networks: 03457 643 643 or visit nienetworks.co.uk