Power restored after gale force winds

Electricity: About 600 customers are still without power

Northern Ireland Electricity engineers have been working to repair damage caused by storm force winds which cut supplies to almost 6,000 customers overnight.

The winds, some gusting up to 65 miles per hour, caused havoc across the province with the worst affected areas along the north coast.

Over half of those to lose power were reconnected by midday on Friday but there are still 600 homes without electricity.

NIE's communication's manager Robin Greer said the worst affected areas were mainly from Cushendall to Coleraine.

Overnight it looks like most parts could have a covering of snow on the ground

Ian Fleming
Met office

"We are looking at customers being restored to power by the end of today," he said.

"We are currently at that stage where engineers have to find the faults, test the system and start the repairs so we would hope to see customers returning to power shortly."

Ferry services were also badly disrupted.

All early sailings were cancelled but according to Ian Bailey of Stena Line, services are slowly getting back to normal.

"The sailings were fully booked today so it will take us some time to clear the backlog of traffic," he said.

Severe weather

"But we are keeping customers informed and we want to make sure that people do not have to wait around unnecessarily."

Seacat services have also been disrupted while drivers of high-sided vehicles have been warned to be careful.

The Met office has said winds should ease throughout Friday afternoon but forecasters have warned of more severe weather over the weekend.

"There certainly is a fairly high risk of some snow particularly this evening and over night it looks like most parts could have a covering of snow on the ground," said Ian Fleming.

"With the cold temperatures certainly by day and especially overnight that snow probably will be slow to lift so that could well persist into the new year."