LONDON — Assistance from England and France has been requested by Ireland as repair crews endeavor to restore power to hundreds of thousands of residents following the most significant storm in years. Despite ongoing cleanup efforts, the U.K., Ireland, and France were besieged by further wet and windy conditions on Sunday.
Storm Éowyn (pronounced AY-oh-win) swept through on Friday, leaving over 1 million individuals without electricity across Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. The storm wreaked havoc, particularly in Ireland, where strong winds uprooted telephone poles, destroyed a Dublin ice rink, and even knocked over a large wind turbine. On the western coast, a wind gust reached an astonishing 114 mph (183 kph), surpassing a record set in 1945.
The state electricity provider, ESB Networks, reported that more than 300,000 homes in Ireland remained without power on Sunday, a decrease from the 768,000 affected on Friday. While the Irish military has offered assistance, officials indicated that it might take another two weeks for complete restoration of electricity. Irish Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary, emphasized the urgency of the situation, stating, “We’re mobilizing all available resources.”
He mentioned the intention to bring in additional personnel from England and seek technicians from France. “Our objective is clear: restoring our infrastructure, power, water, and connectivity as swiftly as possible,” he told the broadcaster RTE. In Northern Ireland, which shares a border with Ireland, around 75,000 individuals were also still without electricity on Sunday.
Tragically, the storm resulted in at least two fatalities. A 20-year-old man named Kacper Dudek lost his life when a tree collapsed onto his vehicle in County Donegal, northwest Ireland, as confirmed by local authorities. Additionally, police in Scotland reported the death of a 19-year-old male, whose identity remains undisclosed, after a tree fell on his car in Mauchline, southwestern Scotland.
As more rain and strong winds lashed the U.K. and Ireland on Sunday, gusts of up to 82 mph (132 kph) were recorded in Predannack, southwest England. This inclement weather is associated with a new system dubbed Storm Herminia by meteorological services in Spain, which braces for severe impacts.
In France, weather advisories were issued for numerous regions, particularly Normandy and Brittany in the northwest. Flooding prompted the overflowing of canals and rivers, road closures, and evacuation orders in various locales. The mayor of Rennes, a city in Brittany, reported that the area was experiencing its worst flooding in over forty years. Local broadcasts depicted families evacuating their ground floors as waters surged to a height of about a meter (three feet).
Meanwhile, a 73-year-old British sailor has been reported missing off the Atlantic coast near Bordeaux, France. The regional maritime authority indicated that he had gone boating alone on Saturday despite warnings of the impending storm. His damaged boat was later discovered abandoned.
