Thousands of Leitrim homes without electricity and water after Storm Darragh

Thousands of homes and business premises in Leitrim are currently without electricity and water in the wake of Storm Darragh. 

Uisce Éireann customers in South Leitrim are understood to be experiencing disruption to their water supply today as a result of power outages at the Carrick-on-Shannon Water Treatment Plant, after the overnight storm.

Over 2,000 houses and businesses in Carrick-on-Shannon are currently without power and aren't expected to be reconnected until 7pm this evening. There are further power cuts affecting around 1,500 properties in Mohill with over 700 properties in Carrigallen also without power.

Power outages have also affected operations at the Moneyduff Water Treatment Plant in North Leitrim. Customers served by this supply zone may also experience disruptions to their supplies today.

Uisce Éireann is working with the ESB to restore power and return water supplies to normal levels as quickly as possible. However due to the demand on ESB resources in the wake of Storm Darragh, outages may persist through today and into Sunday in some areas.

Customers are urged to conserve water where possible in order to protect supply while the outages are resolved.

Vulnerable customers who have registered with Uisce Éireann receive direct communications from us for planned and unplanned outages lasting more than four hours.

Uisce Éireann’s customer care team is available to help 24/7 on 1800 278 278 and customers can also contact us on X @IWCare with any queries. For further updates, visit the service and supply section of www.water.ie (outage reference number: WIC00085950).

Uisce Éireann has also launched a free text service, providing real-time updates for local issues. Customers can sign up with their Eircode and mobile number at www.water.ie.

Extremely strong and gusty winds associated with Storm Darragh have caused widespread and extensive damage to the electricity network across the country with over 325,000 homes, farms and businesses without power. There was approximately 395,000 customers without power at 7am.

Storm Darragh is similar in impact to Storm Ophelia in 2017, which left 385,000 customers without power at the peak but with more widespread impact across the country.

he impact is nationwide and there has been extensive damage to electricity infrastructure so far. With Met Éireann wind warnings remaining in place for the entire country until this afternoon, further power outages can be expected from potentially damaging gusts.

ESB Networks crews and partner contractors have been deployed since early morning to assess the damage of Storm Darragh, make the network safe and restore electricity supply in challenging conditions. All ESB Networks teams are mobilised and are continuing to closely monitor the storm impact on power supplies.

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"From our experience of previous significant weather events and due to the severity of Storm Darragh, we expect that power restoration will take multiple days. Significant numbers of impacted customers will have their power restored throughout today but restoration efforts will take a number of days and it is likely that the areas worst affected will take longer," a spokesperson said.

"Given the scale of the damage and the dynamic nature of the event, we will be working to confirm restoration times for customers throughout the day and we will update www.PowerCheck.ie as information is confirmed. We advise customers to sign up for our “Keep me Notified” service for power outages on www.PowerCheck.ie to receive status updates directly. Our Customer Contact Centre Agents will be supporting customers throughout Storm Darragh but will not be in a position to provide outage information until the network assessment has been fully conducted.

An Important Public Safety Message: If you come across fallen wires or damaged electricity network, never, ever touch or approach these as they are LIVE and extremely dangerous. Please report any damage to electricity infrastructure by calling 1800 372 999.