NIE says 300 homes remain without power

NIE staff have been working throughout the night to restore power to about 3,500 homes across Northern Ireland.

At one stage on Thursday night, gale-force winds had brought down power lines leaving 6,000 homes without electricity.

NIE said on Friday morning that 600 homes were still without power and there were 47 individual faults on the network.

At about 1200 GMT on Friday, the company had reduced that figure to 300 houses.

It said the main areas affected were Dungannon and Omagh in County Tyrone.

Sara McClintock of NIE said:"Network damage was widespread throughout Northern Ireland last night although we saw a distinct rise in faults in the Fermanagh and Tyrone areas around tea time.

"Severe gusts also seemed to affect the Lagan Valley as there were a number of large faults around the Dunmurry and Lisburn areas.

"If any customer is waking up without power this morning and they haven't already contacted us we would ask them to call the NIE customer help line on 08457 643 643."

NIE said local incident centres would reopen at 0700 GMT on Friday to restore power to affected customers.

It said centres were also "ready to respond to any new faults that have occurred throughout the night and are just being reported".

Enniskillen in County Fermanagh was the worst-affected area on Thursday night with 1500 dwellings without power.

Heavy rainfall caused flooding to a number of roads, particularly in the north-west.

NIE stepped up all their incident centres and 125 engineers were out on the ground. Late on Thursday 3,500 homes were still without power.

The company said many of the 200 faults on the network were caused by fallen trees or branches.

Flooded

Emergency services came to the aid of two women and a boy, aged 11, after two cars they were traveling in were struck by a falling tree near Nixons Corner, Londonderry.

All three were treated by paramedics for shock.

On Friday morning, the Roads Service said the B72 Liskey Road between Victoria Bridge and Strabane remained closed due to a tree which had fallen, as did the B48 Duncastle Road between Donamanagh and New Buildings.

It said "all areas" of Northern Ireland had been affected by "flooding and falling trees" overnight and that the areas "worst affected" were in the Western Division.

The Roads Service said drivers should "exercise extreme caution on all roads" on Friday morning due to the number of roads that remained "partially blocked" by trees which had fallen.

On Thursday night, the main Bangor to Belfast road was closed between Ballymoney Road and Whinney Hill due to a fallen telegraph pole. It was expected to remain closed until repairs were made.

The A6 Glenshane Road was flooded at Cross but was accessible.

The A40 Letterkenny Road was flooded at a number of locations outside Londonderry but remained passable.

A fallen tree has blocked the Hannahstown Hill road in Belfast

Stena Line said that due to "anticipated adverse conditions on the Irish Sea," sailings would be suspended from Thursday afternoon until the early hours of Friday.

P & O said on Friday that due to "ongoing adverse weather conditions" it was experiencing delays and anticipated this would "continue throughout the morning".

Earlier the Met Office had warned that winds of up to 70mph were expected in Northern Ireland on Thursday evening.

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