At one point 195,000 homes and businesses had no power but the ESB has been working to rectify this all day and they have successfully restored power to over 90,000 homes, farms and businesses.
Large power outages were recorded in Cork, Limerick, Clare and Galway. Several trees fell down in Cork and local authorities are prepared for structural damage and further flooding.
The damage is widespread, with southern, western and Midlands counties most impacted. 40,000 homes, farms and businesses in Cork city and county were without power earlier on. The damage is mainly attributable to fallen trees on overhead lines as a result of the high winds.
A status yellow alert for the entire country expired at 8am. Met Éireann subsequently issued a status yellow rainfall warning for the entire country at 9am, that will remain in place until 5am on Friday morning.
A wind warning for Dublin, Louth, Wexford, Wicklow, Meath, Cork, Kerry and Waterford will be in effect from 5pm today until 5am tomorrow. The national forecaster has warned of strong winds overnight and a continued risk of flooding in coastal areas.
Latest Warnings from Met Éireann see...https://t.co/ozrQHtoOkt pic.twitter.com/WPf5xBSyTm
Advertisement— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) August 20, 2020
Worst weather since Storm Ophelia
Cathal Nolan, from Ireland's Weather Channel, says it's the worst weather since Storm Ophelia, which claimed three lives in 2017.
"Certainly this storm ranks pretty evenly with Storm Ophelia," he said. "Some parts of the country have seen gusts of wind in the past few hours that have even exceeded the levels that were recorded during Storm Ophelia and of course the damage to power supplies is of a similar nature."
Severe flooding hit Skibbereen, Cork last night while there was thunder and lightening in the Macroom area. Winds were reaching 115km/h in gusts at the Fastnet Rock lighthouse at 11pm.
A status red warning in Cork expired at midnight. Cork County Council officials say they had over 50 reports of fallen trees across the county last night with many roads in a dangerous condition as a result.
Meanwhile, boats were damaged last night at Cobh due to Storm Ellen.
Eddie English of Sail Cork witnessed a yacht sink off the new Cove Sailing Club Marina. Mr English said that the yacht is now at the bottom of the sea at Whitepoint in Cobh.
Mr English said seas will remain rough today in Cork and the Lower Harbour areas.
Speaking to Patricia Messinger on C103's Cork Today Show, Mr English said: "There's been structural damage to the [Cobh] marina. It's not over yet because the southerly winds are gusting to storm force off the coast, this will go on tonight and increase somewhat this evening so people need to remain cautious.
"The north side of the great island on which Cobh is situation will certainly see flooding this evening."
This shouldn’t be happening in Skibbereen.Millions spent on flood protection.The entire town should be dry even in this intense rainfall. Part of me is not surprised. The flood committee flagged that this area needed more protection.OPW need to provide answers. #StormEllen pic.twitter.com/pPr061LOz9
Advertisement— Christopher O’Sullivan TD (@COSullivanTD) August 19, 2020
ESB Networks crews were dispatched this morning in the most affected areas where safe to do so, assessing the damage so that they can restore power as quickly and effectively as possible.
The ESB's Derek Hynes says crews are working to get power restored as soon as possible.
Mr Hynes said: "We've had teams out working across all the affected areas overnight and we have all the rest of our crews available to be dispatched for work from 7am this morning. Conditions in the majority of the country have improved, it's still pretty windy and we are expecting yellow wind conditions for the rest of the day."
