The road home was blocked for Irish Farmers Journal beef editor Adam Woods in Co Cavan on Tuesday night when he ended up stuck between two fallen trees. As his picture below shows, there was no driving around the obstacle.
Cavan County Council reported multiple incidents involving fallen trees and electricity and telephone poles around the county, as well as roof tiles being ripped off buildings.
Up to 12 trees now reported down at Drumullen, Farnham, between entrance to @farnhamestate and Drumullen cottages. Please avoid area. #StormEleanor #Cavan pic.twitter.com/ZCHmEIkFzl
— Cavan County Council (@cavancoco) January 2, 2018
In nearby Co Monaghan, too, widespread storm damage is reported in rural areas.
3 tree's down ,roof ended up 60 yards away in one piece!worse than the hurricane ever was !! pic.twitter.com/yYKDO12XO3
— Mark gillanders (@Markgillanders1) January 3, 2018
This Co Leitrim farmer had a narrow escape and said her power was out.
Went out for a walk in the storm (as ye do!!) and this fell down in front of me. Skedaddled back home after that ??
— Karen (@LadyHaywire) January 2, 2018
Also found an ESB pole down on a bend at the lake so put cones around it. Hopefully avoid a crash! pic.twitter.com/293jM939n6
Top wind speeds reached 155km/h at Knock Airport, Co Mayo, the same recorded at Roches Point, Co Cork during hurricane Ophelia in October. The trail of the most severe destruction stretches from the border region through Co Roscommon and to the Sligo and Mayo coasts. Sligo County Council reported multiple fallen trees and poles.
Mayo had the largest number of customers without electricity, with around 10,000 still disconnected on Wednesday morning, according to ESB Networks. The agency said it had restored power to 134,000 customers by noon on Wednesday and was working to reconnect another 21,000 on Wednesday. Remaining faults extend across the west and north of the country. Lightning caused additional damage to the network in the south. Co Tipperary residents told the Irish Farmers Journal that an electrical storm caused the power to go out at around 3am.
ESB Networks has advised anyone coming across damaged lines not to go near them and keep children and animals away. Customers of any electricity supplier can check if their fault is already recorded at www.powercheck.ie or call 1850 372 999 to report new outages.
Flooding
Heavy rains and tidal waves have caused extensive flooding along the west and southwest coasts. Many seaside locations were under water at high tides on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning, with risk remaining high for the next high tide at around 5.45pm on Wednesday.
Flooding land drain on Michael Fahy's land in Ballyboy, Ardrahan, Co Galway after Storm Eleanor. \ David Ruffles
Flooding has also occurred along rivers swollen by rainfall. Farmer and journalist Lorcan Roche Kelly from Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, posted this picture of his farm on Tuesday night.
That's my farm on the left, and the river flowing over the top of the bank at the right #FeckOffEleanor pic.twitter.com/hwoC30uQ3C
— Lorcan Roche Kelly (@LorcanRK) January 2, 2018
In Co Donegal, rural communities on the Inishowen Peninsula already hit by flash floods in August have faced a new deluge. Emergency crews were filmed closing roads and pumping water in the Carndonagh area.
Warnings
Wind warnings remain in place for most of Wednesday and a new alert has been issued for Thursday.
Met Éireann has updated its status orange warning for counties Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick until 2pm this Wednesday, with more coastal damage and flooding expected, but damaging gusts likely inland also.
A status yellow warning also applies to the rest of the country, i.e. Leinster and counties Cavan, Monaghan, Roscommon, Tipperary and Waterford, until 2pm on Wednesday.
In Northern Ireland, the Met Office has issued a status yellow wind warning until 6pm on Wednesday except for the north of Co Derry and Co Antrim.
Strong winds are then expected to return to the southern half of the country on Thursday. Met Éireann has issued a status yellow warning for Munster and counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow from 3am to 1pm on Thursday. West to southwest winds veering west to northwest are forecast to reach mean speeds of 55 to 65km/h, with gusts of 90 to 110km/h.
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