Storm Lorenzo: ESB work to restore power to thousands of homes and businesses
Thousands of homes are without power today after Storm Lorenzo arrived in Ireland overnight bringing with it powerful winds of up to 65 km/hr.
ESB crews are working to restore power to customers while a fresh weather warning was issued this morning for Longford, Westmeath, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Clare.
The ESB urged the public to remain vigilant of fallen trees and fallen power lines and to treat all fallen wires as live and motorists have been urged to exercise caution in the aftermath of the storm.
Met Éireann forecaster Joanna Donnelly told RTÉ's Morning Ireland: "It is a blustery and very windy day out there, it will stay windy throughout the morning and will bring hazards, particularly along the west coast.
She warned commuters to take extra care and to be wary of potential hazards following the strong winds overnight.
There are now approximately 3,600 electricity customers without power.
ESB has restored power to 12,000 homes, farms and businesses since the onset of Storm Lorenzo.
Around 7,500 homes and businesses are without power this morning as Storm Lorenzo sweeps through Ireland.
The ESB said power outages are being reported in areas in Mayo, Kerry, Limerick and Dublin City Centre.
Charleville in Cork and Kilcolgan in Galway are the worst affected with more than 1,100 power cuts in both areas.
All weather warnings have now been lifted by Met Eireann, but motorists are being warned of potential hazards on the roads.
Paul Hand from the ESB said they have started working to restore power around the country:
Broadly speaking, the impact of Storm Lorenzo hasn't been as severe as we might have thought earlier in the week and crews will be out now at first light and will hopefully have power restored over the course of the day.
"What we're asking people to do in affected areas is to go on to the ESB website or download the powercheck app as they'll have the most real-time information."
Met Eireann has issued a new status yellow wind warning for Kildare, Offaly, Westmeath, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Clare.
The warning is valid until 1pm this afternoon.
Alan O'Reilly from Carlow Weather has been assessing the storm's impact: "Mace Head as expected on the west coast saw the strongest of the gusts. Top gusts speed recorded was 107kmph which is a little bit below what had been forecast.
"While the winds haven't been quite as strong... they've been very sustained winds along the west coast. That's really continuing even at this stage in the morning."
