95,000 homes hit by power outages

95,000 homes hit by power outages

11 December 2024

LOCAL areas survived the worst of the damage caused by Storm Darragh across Northern Ireland at the weekend.

However a number of local events were cancelled, roads and parks closed and homes left without power. 

Sustaining gusts between 60 and 70mph throughout Saturday, Darragh was the fourth named storm of the season, following Storms Ashley, Bert and Conall.

On Friday night, a section of the Shrigley Road in Killyleagh, between Coily Hill Road and Crossgar Road, was blocked by a fallen tree which brought down power cables.

Also on the Shrigley Road, a tree blocked access in the Kirk/Broad Meadow area.

In Newcastle, a fallen tree blocked access on the Corrigs Road, and there were a number of flooding incidents throughout the town on Saturday.

The weather disruption meant a number of festive events couldn’t go ahead as planned last weekend.

One such event was Saintfield’s annual Christmas fair and lights switch on, which was cancelled on Friday evening.

Robin Martin, who owns two businesses in the village, was due to perform at the event.

“It is just one of those things unfortunately,” he said.

“There’s nothing that can be done and we just have to take it on the chin.”

Also in Saintfield, the annual Christmas Charity Ride to raise money for a children’s choir in Uganda had to be cancelled on Saturday morning.

Ride organiser Joan Cunningham said in a social media post that she was “devastated” to have to cancel the event:

“We had a massive number of online entries not to mention the people who would have been paying on the day,” she said.

“Everyone who entered online will be fully refunded.” 

In Downpatrick, the County Down Railway Lapland Express trains had to be cancelled on Saturday.

In Castlewellan, Christmas craft activities which were due to take place in the forest park on Saturday have been rescheduled by Newry Mourne and Down District Council.

From Friday afternoon until Sunday, all four forest country parks in the area were closed, external to cars and pedestrians.

Silent Valley was also closed by Northern Ireland Water on Saturday.

Engineers from NIE Networks continue to work to restore power in the area following extensive damage to the network caused by the storm.

At its peak, the storm caused 48,000 customers to lose power throughout Saturday. 

Over the course of the storm in the region of 95,000 customers were impacted by power cuts with 15,000 remaining as of 9am on Sunday morning. 

NIE Networks estimated that it may be a number of days before they can reconnect all those customers impacted. 

Alex Houston, NIE Network Operations Manager, said: “Most of the faults affecting high numbers of customers have been repaired which has allowed us to restore significant numbers of customers.

“However, there are still around 1200 faults across the network some of which are affecting very small numbers of customers so we do anticipate that it will take some time before we can get all of these cleared.”

He continued: “Engineers will be working to restore customers as quickly as they can and we will provide further updates as soon as we are able to.”

NIE Networks employees have also been working on the ground to carry out welfare checks and provide practical support to those who have lost power.

Members of the public have been asked to check in on relatives, friends and neighbours who may require further support and to also ensure that their power cut has been reported.

NIE Networks is also reminding the public to stay clear of any damaged electricity equipment, keep children and animals away and to report any incidents of damage immediately to the NIE Networks Customer Helpline on 03457 643 643.