Thousands in the North without electricity

Around 7,000 homes in the North remained off supply today as Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) engineers worked throughout the night to restore power.

NIE spokesman Robin Greer said it was hoped all customers would be back on supply today but warned that more storms forecast for later could today lead to more power cuts.

``There is further bad weather forecast so that could hamper work and also lead to new faults,'' he said.

At its height up to 90,000 customers were cut off after 90 mile per hour winds battered the North on Friday night.

Hundreds of NIE staff worked throughout the night to restore homes affected by the severe weather.

By yesterday they had returned power to more than 90% of those affected after responding to more than 1,800 instances of damage to the network.

At daylight, engineers were beginning the heavy work of replacing poles brought down by the storm.

NIE warned that it could be necessary to take some customers off supply to enable permanent repairs to take place.