12,000 remain without power as Storm Kathleen brings disruption across Ireland

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Around 12,000 customers remained without electricity in Ireland on Saturday evening after Storm Kathleen swept across the island.

The number had fallen from a peak of around 34,000 outages earlier in the day.

The high winds also caused travel disruption, with some flights to and from Dublin and Belfast City airports cancelled.

An orange wind warning for Cork, Kerry and Waterford that came into effect at 7am lifted at 2pm, while another status orange wind warning for Galway and Mayo lapsed at 6pm.

A yellow wind warning was in effect across the rest of Ireland until 8pm.

The yellow warning will remain in place for Donegal, Mayo and west Galway until 4pm on Sunday.

The remaining outages on Saturday evening were concentrated in Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Laois and Wicklow.

A spokesman for ESB Networks said: “ESB Networks crews will continue to work late into the evening with a view to restoring supply to the vast majority of impacted customers by tonight.

“However, there will be some customers without power overnight.”

In advance of the storm, forecaster Met Eireann had warned of gale force southerly winds bringing a risk of difficult travel conditions, fallen trees, power outages and flooding along coastal areas.

Keith Leonard, national director of the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management (NDFEM), had urged people to stay away from all coastal areas during the Met Eireann warnings.

In Northern Ireland, a Met Office yellow wind warning for counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Londonderry was to lift at 10pm on Saturday.

There were multiple instances of fallen trees in the region amid the high winds.

The Met Office had warned of blustery showers in parts of Northern Ireland, with strong to gale force southerly winds and possibly severe gales for a time along the Down and Antrim coasts.