Storm Éowyn leaves 90% of Donegal homes and businesses without power 

Almost 90,000 customers are without power in Donegal after Storm Éowyn caused “widespread and extensive damage” to the county’s electricity network.

The ESB said that as of 2.30pm on Friday around 87,000 customers in Donegal are without power and at one point approximately 90% of all customers in Donegal were without supply.

With the Met Éireann status red warning ending at 2pm and lower warnings continuing until 11pm,  an ESB spokesman said all available resources, including crews and partner contractors, are mobilising to assess the network and work to safely restore power as quickly as possible. 

READ NEXT: Water supply disrupted to parts of Finn Valley as Storm Éowyn hits treatment plant

“They face challenging conditions with Met Éireann wind warnings in place until this evening,” the spokesman said.

“From our experience of previous significant weather events and due to the severity of Storm Éowyn, we expect that power restoration will take a significant number of days and will take more than a week in the worst impacted areas.”

Nationally, the ESB says “unprecedented, widespread and extensive damage” to the electricity network had left around 725,000 customers without power as of 12.30pm.