A woman who has been without an electricity supply for almost two weeks has said Storm Éowyn should have been declared “a national emergency”.
Anna McDonagh and her parents, from Connemara, Co Galway, have been without electricity at their family home since the storm hit late on Thursday, January 23rd.
While ESB Networks crews were in the area on Tuesday the provider informed her that power would not return to their house until this Saturday.
Ms McDonagh, who owns the Gala shop in Cill Chiaráin, said her business was without electricity for about four days.
“Yesterday I had a bit of a moment where I was like ‘I just want this back’,” she said.
“I don’t want to sound selfish, as there are a lot of people in the same boat, but it just does get to you. You get a bit upset. You’re showering in other people’s houses, you’re washing your clothes in other people’s houses. We’re lucky in that we know this isn’t forever, but it is hard.
“We just have a small little stove to try and heat one room in the house. We don’t have a gas top or anything like that. We’re lucky we can go to the shop to get the food, other than that we would be really stuck.”
Ms McDonagh said recent days has been “tough” on her mother, aged in her 70s, who was in hospital in recent weeks with a severe chest infection. She said her father is currently recovering from an illness in hospital and that they are “thankful” he is there as “he’s safe and has everything he needs”.
“We wouldn’t be able to keep him at home if he had been released,” she said.
Ms McDonagh added that those living in the west of Ireland were “the forgotten people” and there should have been more involvement from the Government and local authorities.
“I went to a meeting in Dublin last Tuesday and they [Dubliners] were shocked, they were like ‘Really was it that bad?’ They don’t even really know how bad it was,” she said.
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