Ireland was battered by Storm Éowyn on Friday, with powerful sustained winds and record-breaking gusts leaving a man dead, hundreds of thousands without power and serious damage to buildings and structures across the country.
The clean-up in the wake of the weather event, which saw gusts of 183km/h recorded at Mace Head, Co Galway, will continue over the coming days with close to one million homes, farms and businesses without power across the island at one stage.
Connacht GAA’s €3.1 million Air Dome centre of excellence in Co Mayo was completely destroyed, while a seasonal ice rink in Blanchardstown, west Dublin, was also severely damaged along with the roof of St Joseph’s Church in Boyle, Co Roscommon.
Many roads were impassable due to fallen trees and debris caused by the status-red storm, with local authorities left assessing conditions in many places as the clean-up began.
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In Co Donegal a man died at about 5.30am on Friday after a tree fell on the car he was driving at Feddyglass in Raphoe.
ESB Networks said the storm brought “unprecedented, widespread and extensive damage” to electricity infrastructure and that restoration could take up to a week in the worst-affected areas.
About 540,000 homes were still without power as of Friday night. An additional 280,000 in Northern Ireland were also without electricity.
Restoration will continue “at first light” on Saturday morning, and “we expect to make good progress restoring supplies over the weekend and into next week”, a spokesman for ESB Networks said.
About 138,000 people across the country had no water on Friday night, with supplies for a further 750,000 people are at risk due to power outages at treatment plants and pumping stations.
The impacts were being felt nationwide, with areas across Kerry, Clare, Tipperary, Waterford, Galway, Donegal, Longford and Laois worst affected.
Schools, creches and third-level institutions remained closed on Friday, with public transport curtailed for much of the day. Many businesses and retailers also remained shut for the duration of the storm.
Airports across the country reported hundreds of delays and cancelled incoming and outgoing flights.
The cost of the damage wreaked by Storm Éowyn is likely to exceed €100 million for the insurance industry, judging from past storms, experts have indicated.
They have also predicted the growing prevalence of such events will likely lead to higher premiums for consumers.
Some parts of the country also faced communication difficulties, with little mobile coverage in addition to power outages.
The full picture in remote areas may taken some time to assess, authorities in western counties said.
Part of the roof of Connacht GAA’s Air Dome was ripped off by the winds at about 4am on Friday, which caused the inflated structure to collapse with a lot of the roof blown away.
The €3.1 million indoor facility centre, located near Ballyhaunis, had catered for about 6,000 players since Christmas and was widely used by clubs, counties, schools and third-level colleges.
John Prenty, chief executive of Connacht GAA and who had spearheaded the development of the largest indoor sports arena in the country, vowed that they would rebuild it.
“Thankfully nobody got hurt and that’s the most important thing,” Mr Prenty said. “We took every precaution we could and put everything in place, but it wasn’t enough. It tore and it’s on the ground.”
A snow and ice warning remains in place in Co Donegal until 9am on Saturday. A similar warning was issued for Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry, which expires at 10am.
Saturday will begin cold and crisp with frost and icy patches and early sunshine will be replaced by cloudier skies, as showery rain moves in from the Atlantic during the afternoon and early evening, Met Éireann said.
Some hail is expected with isolated thunderstorms with highest temperatures of between 3 and 7 degrees.
However, on Sunday, strong to near gale-force winds will return to coastal parts of the south and west, according to the forecaster, again hitting areas badly affected by Storm Éowyn.
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