Emergency teams are again working to restore power and water supplies across the country on Wednesday in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn.
Around 133,000 homes, farms, and businesses are still in the dark, as electricity in the worst affected areas may not be restored until the middle of next week.
Emergency crews, including some from abroad, are working to repair the "unprecedented damage" caused to the electricity infrastructure last week.
Repair crews from Austria, Finland and the UK are now on the ground in the worst impacted areas, and 17 generators are also en route to provide power for larger areas that remain offline.
Further support is arriving from France this afternoon, this is in addition to crews due to arrive from the Netherlands over the coming days.
Some 16,000 people are still without water following the storm, which equates to about 7,500 premises, according to Uisce Éireann's head of water operations, Margaret Attridge.
Ms Attridge said most of those without water are in the north west of the country. She also revealed that there are generators maintaining supply to another 120,000 people.
Head of water pperations at Uisce Éireann, Margaret Attridge said that there is a continuing focus on working with the ESB to prioritise power restoration to treatment plants and pumping stations in impacted areas alongside providing alternative water supplies to customers where supplies have been disrupted for longer periods.
“Our priority now is to ensure the restoration of electricity to our plants and pumping stations that are running on generators or remain without power because connection to a generator is simply not possible.
“We understand the impact that prolonged loss of water supply has on our customers. In areas where water supply has been out for longer periods, our teams are providing alternative water supplies and we currently have 50 locations around the country where alternative supplies are in place.
"More will be deployed as required, and we will be updating our website and providing information to local stakeholders about their locations.
"We are also providing additional supports for elderly and vulnerable customers and we would encourage people to contact our customer care team at 1800 278 278 is additional support is needed.”
Fruit and vegetable shortage
Meanwhile, farmers say we could see shortages of some fruits and vegetables because of the damage caused by Storm Éowyn.
The heavy winds last week destroyed produce, as well as polytunnels, and glasshouses, and now, the Irish Farmer's Association (IFA) has called on the Government to provide support for crop growers who have had their farms destroyed.
IFA fruit and vegetable chairman, Niall McCormack, says the storm couldn't have happened at a worse time.
"Farmers just want to get back into business. They realise that everyone in the community has been affected, but growers just want to do what they know best.
"Growers are operating on quite tight margins, so there's not really much money left in the purse, and for that reason, growers need some help," he said.
Elsewhere, more than 850 Post Offices are now back open nationwide, following storm-related closures.
An Post says details of offices where customers can collect social welfare payments are listed at anpost.com.
Payments due this week are ready for collection, along with payments which were due last Friday.
Letter and parcel deliveries and collections are mostly back to normal except in some areas where roads remain blocked.
On Tuesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin rejected suggestions that Ireland was slow to respond to offers of help from the EU to deal with the aftermath of Storm Éowyn.
It came after Rachel Connolly from Castlerea in Co Roscommon confronted the Taoiseach when he visited an emergency hub in the area. Ms Connolly said she could be waiting until February 5 for her power to be restored, and that more preparation is needed.
Source - https://www.irishexaminer.com
