Power restored to majority of homes

Electricity: About 600 customers are still without power

Northern Ireland Electricity have said about 300 to 350 homes in the north coast area are still without power following overnight storms.

NIE communication's manager Robin Greer said major faults which had cut supplies to almost 6,000 customers had been repaired.

Engineers are continuing to work on minor faults which have been responsible for power cuts at three and four houses at a time.

"You're never happy when customers lose supply but the plans and resources were in place last night," he said.

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

Ian Fleming The Met Office

"Six thousand people have had power restored in a day and that has proven that the resources we have put into training and investing in the network and in our systems to react to that are standing up very well."

He also advised customers who were without power to check their own fuses and trip switches which could have been thrown when supply was cut.

The winds, some gusting up to 65 miles per hour, caused havoc across the province with the worst affected areas from Cushendall to Coleraine.

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.

Snow showers

"The weather does change on an hourly basis so if passengers can check before travelling that is the best advice at the moment."

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

The Met office has 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."