Strong winds leave 8,000 homes without power

Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) has had engineers working overnight to restore power to over 8,000 homes overnight after strong winds and rain swept across the province.

Structural damage was caused to the electricity network as a result of falling trees and flying debris affecting many towns across Counties Down and Antrim.

Robin Greer, NIE Communications Manager said: "We were on top of the damage caused by the high winds from the start. We had been monitoring the weather situation very closely so our staff were already in position to get customers back on supply as quickly as possible.

"Because we worked to restore people throughout the night, many people probably wouldn't even have known their electricity was off.

"We have invested heavily in our service and our systems have been thoroughly tested, but the reality is that Northern Ireland has a dispersed population and therefore the sort of rural network that is vulnerable to severe conditions, however unseasonal."

The main towns hit by the power cut were Ballykelly, Banbridge, Dromore, Lisnaskea, Ballymena and Dungannon.

The remaining small pockets of customers still off supply this morning are expected to be restored by the end of the day.

(MB)