Power cuts continue after winds

Progress on the motorways was slow for commuters

Northern Ireland Electricity has said it expects to restore power to 8,000 homes still without power following Tuesday's severe weather, by the end of Wednesday.

By Wednesday morning, 10,000 homes in Northern Ireland still had no elecricity.

In total, 100,000 customers were cut off on Tuesday.

Gale-force winds and heavy snow, which hit the east of the province on Monday night-Tuesday morning, brought down overhead powerlines and caused widespread travel disruption.

NIE said that customers who still have no electricity - some after 36 hours - are mostly in Counties Antrim and Down in Newry, Ballyclare, Lisburn, Downpatrick and Bangor.

'Hazardous'

David Gavin from NIE said engineers had been working through the night for a second night to restore supplies, but that in many areas roads were still icy and winds high.

"Many of our own engineers have been skidding off the roads trying to get to do repairs and they have been up poles in high winds," he said.

"We have to balance safety with getting people back on supply."

Defending NIE's network he added: "It is one of the most rural in the UK, apart from the west of Scotland, which means that in severe weather we have problems."

He added that if NIE was to put all of its cables underground, bills would be three times higher for consumers, and this would not stop all faults.

Criticism

However, NIE's handling of the situation was criticised at the Northern Ireland Assembly on Tuesday.

Economy minister Sir Reg Empey said that he intended to conduct a 'post mortem' with NIE when the current emergency had passed.

There has been criticism of the company's staffing of its emergency helpline, on which many customers were only been able to get a recorded message.

Sinn Fein assembly member John Kelly said NIE had promised that the problems in their customer call handling system which accompanied heavy snow falls last December, had been eradicated.

The company spent £80m refurbishing the electricity network and £12m improving its customer services, £5m of which was on its call handling system.

Scotland and the Republic of Ireland were also hit by the severe weather.