Donegal picks up pieces from storm damage

Some homes and businesses are still in the black after major power outages due to Storms Isha and Jocelyn.

By Wednesday morning, 5,000 customers were still without power across Donegal. It is expected that it could be well into Thursday before power is fully restored.

Over 60 faults were active in Donegal on Wednesday, including a major fault in the Moville area affecting over 1,600 customers.

“All available ESB Networks resources are deployed across the county,” an ESB spokesperson told Donegal Live. “This includes crews and partner contractors who have travelled from less impacted areas of the country.

“We apologise for the disruption to family and commercial life this causes, and thank customers across the county, especially those who were without power again overnight, for their patience as our crews work to safely restore power.”

Storms lashed Donegal in recent days with Storm Isha causing extensive damage overnight on Sunday into Monday. Storm Jocelyn’s arrive on Tuesday evening necessitated an orange weather alert from Met Éireann.

The strongest wind gust recorded in Donegal during Storm Jocelyn was 115km/h, recorded at Malin Head at 8pm on Wednesday. A gust of 133km/h, the peak wind speed in Donegal, was recorded at around 11pm on Sunday at the Malin Head Weather Station during a red alert from Met Éireann.

Over 40,000 homes and businesses were left in the dark on Sunday night as Storm Isha caused widespread havoc.

Fallen trees, ESB poles, electrical wires and other debris were strewn across roads in all parts of Donegal, some of which were closed. Travel was affected into Monday as the clean-up operation began.

Donegal County Council’s roads and fire services and the Civil Defence were placed at a heightened state of readiness on Sunday with sandbags deployed to high-risk areas in advance of the storm.

“We felt the impact right across the county,” said Bryan Cannon, Donegal County Council’s Director of Roads and Transportation. “There are significant numbers of homes and businesses without power and structural damage to a number of properties. Even the mobile phone network was disrupted.”

Met Éireann issued a Status Red alert, prompting people to batten down the hatches.

Mr Cannon told how there were a lot of instances of spot flooding while trees were down from early on Sunday afternoon.

By nightfall, Gardai in Donegal issued an update stating: ‘There is hardly a road in the county at this stage that has not got fallen trees on it”.

Fallen electrical poles and wires added to the chaos. At some locations, including Carndonagh and Letterbarrow, sparks flew from live wires ‘and the situation is very dangerous’, the Council said.

The Monday morning Donegal-Dublin flight from Donegal Airpot was cancelled while Bus Éireann cancelled its Expressway services in the county on Sunday afternoon. The service was restored again by Monday.

In Killygordon, a silo tipped over at the Aurivo plant while a part of the roof at the Finn Valley Leisure Centre blew off on Sunday night. Aluminium sheeting was displaced and the facility remained closed on Monday as management assessed the extent of the damage. The centre reopened again on Tuesday morning.

A spokesperson for Met Éireann told Donegal Live that Thursday will ‘be breezy, though not as windy as it has been, with moderate to fresh south to southwest winds.’

The spokesperson said: “There will be outbreaks of rain and drizzle through the day too but that rain will turn patchier in the afternoon. However, further rain will spread from the west on Thursday evening and early night. Highs of 11 or 12 degrees.

“Some heavy downpours possible on Thursday night but that will clear quickly and Friday will be drier and brighter again, though there will be a few showers. Some of those may fall as hail and sleet at first, especially over high ground.

“Currently it looks like there will be some dry spells this weekend but patchy rain and drizzle will occur at times.”