Thousands without power as Met warns of floods

TENS of thousands of homes were left without electricity yesterday as the remnants of Hurricane Katia pounded our shores.

The strong winds also left weatherman John Eagleton red-faced after he was forced to apologise to thousands of people across Donegal after he got the outcome of the hurricane wrong.

ESB crews worked all day to restore power to about 11,000 customers in Cavan, Longford, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal. Some 2,000 customers in Dublin and Meath were also left without electricity due to a outage in Coolmine.

Last night, the gardaí and the AA warned people not to travel unless absolutely necessary and called for people to be extra vigilant in high sided vehicles and on exposed roads.

Blustery conditions remained in most areas for much of the evening with the worst of the weather in Connaught and Ulster. Met Éireann also warned of coastal flooding and exceptionally high seas along the western seaboard.

In Galway, trees were brought down by high winds in both the city and county while high tides while the Salthill promenade was also flooded.

In Clare, a number of people were injured after they ignored warnings about the dangerous conditions at the Cliffs of Moher and ventured up to the cliffs, ending up being swept off their feet.

Management at the cliffs had advised visitors not to venture up around the cliffs because of the “extremely hazardous conditions”.

However, several people ignored the warnings, and sustained minor injuries suffering falls.

While the visitor centre remained open, plans were in place to evacuate staff and visitors if necessary. Director Katherine Webster said the weather was at its worst during lunchtime but improved as the day wore on.

“In these conditions, people can be swept of their feet very easily and so we erected warning signs advising people not to go up around the cliffs. We couldn’t physically stop people and several people did ignore the warnings and as a result some suffered falls and minor injuries.”

A marquee was also blown down at Carrick-a-rede in Ballintoy, Co Antrim, where the cast of Game of Thrones had set up to film. It is understood that three people were injured.

Meanwhile, Met Éireann’s well-known forecaster, Eagleton, had to apologise to thousands of people across Donegal after he got the outcome of Hurricane Katia wrong.

He told listeners on Highland Radio at 10.15am yesterday that winds had peaked. However, in an slight echo of BBC weatherman Michael Fish’s infamous failure to foresee the hurricane of 1987 that devastated Britain, he was forced to come back and apologise when power was knocked out to thousands of homes — including the radio station.

More than 4,000 homes lost power while trees were blown down in Convoy, Glenties and on the Inishowen Peninsula.

Mr Eagleton said he could not explain the sudden change in weather and said weather devices at Finner Camp showed winds were gusting at 56 knots, while Malin Head was gusting at 110km/h.

“What can I say — I can’t stop the winds. The general figures are pretty steady there for the past couple of hours. There is a pressure surge but I can’t see it getting dramatically worse.

“I apologise if I said there would be no power outage. If the whole of Donegal or the whole north-west is out then that’s different.”