56,000 homes and businesses still without power and 460 without water

ireland
56,000 Homes And Businesses Still Without Power And 460 Without Water
Several large-capacity generators are being provided by Poland and Denmark, following a request under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. Photo: PA
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Kenneth Fox

The National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) said that around 56,000 homes, farms, schools and businesses remain without power following Storm Éowyn.

In addition, fewer than 460 premises now remain without water.

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The group met again on Saturday to continue to coordinate efforts to restore power, water, telecommunications and other services following Storm Éowyn.

Supported by government departments and agencies on the NECG, ESB Networks continues to mobilise all available resources to restore power connections as soon as possible

Several large-capacity generators are being provided by Poland and Denmark, following a request under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

The generators are being deployed to support Uisce Éireann and telecommunications operators to bring water, phone and broadband services back to homes and businesses.

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The NECG will meet again on Sunday, and the relevant subgroups continue to progress work in their respective areas.

In the areas with the largest number of faults, as ESB Networks make progress to repair the extensive damage, some customers may see their estimated restoration times change over the coming days.

If you are in a position to visit www.PowerCheck.ie, estimated restoration times will continue to be updated.

It is expected that the customers who remain without power will progressively have their supply restored over the course of next week.

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They said 285 skilled technicians from counterparts in Austria, Finland, France and Great Britain are now on the ground in the worst impacted areas.

Further support is arriving from Germany, Netherlands and Norway over the coming days.

They are supporting over 2,500 local ESB Networks crews and partner contactors in the worst impacted areas who have been bolstered by colleagues from the south and east of the country, as well as skilled retirees.

In addition to the crews deployed, over 1,300 support staff are involved in overseeing damage assessment, emergency call management, logistics and network operations.

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ESB Networks’ customer contact centre has also doubled its resources to accommodate the unprecedented high volumes of calls, resulting in short call response times throughout the day and night for their customers.

Uisce Éireann teams will continue their efforts to restore supply to any remaining areas, as well as carrying out business-as-usual repair and maintenance works on the network.

Uisce Éireann have now deployed and installed generators at almost all of the plants, pumping stations and reservoirs where it is feasible to do so. Having done so, Uisce Éireann are continuing to work closely with the ESB to prioritise the restoration of electricity supply in the remaining locations.

In areas where water has not yet returned, alternative water supplies are being provided to support local communities and Uisce Éireann is tankering water to treated water reservoirs to resupply smaller schemes.

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The estimated effect of Storm Éowyn on the national telecoms userbase was the largest in the Commission for Communications Regulation (Comreg’s) recording history.

Repair and restoration work is now showing significant progress in restoring connectivity and several fixed service operator networks have been returned to normal service levels.

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They said 329 Emergency Response Hubs are currently operational, down from a high of 380.

These include community led hubs with local authority financial and administrative supports. Emergency Response Hubs are assisting people with basic needs such as water, hot food, phone charging, broadband access, and shower facilities.

Emergency response hubs are operating in Cavan (18 hubs), Clare (6 hubs), Donegal (50 hubs), Galway City (3 hubs) and Galway County (52 hubs), Kildare (1 hub), Leitrim (30 hubs), Limerick City and County (1 hub), Longford (6 hubs), Mayo (39 hubs), Meath (10 hubs), Monaghan (23 hubs), Offaly (10 hubs), Roscommon (37 hubs), Sligo (21 hubs), Westmeath (20 hub), Wexford (30 hubs) and Cork County (2 hubs).

Further details on the above hubs are available here.

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