Irish weather...spring, summer and winter, you can have it all in just one day!Photocall Ireland
Storm Darwin and its hurricane-force 100 mph winds swept through Ireland on Wednesday, leaving close to 215,000 homes without power, felling thousands of trees, and ripping the roofs off buildings.
Met Éireann, Ireland’s national weather service, issued red alerts for counties Cork and Kerry, which were among the first to be hit as Darwin reached Ireland’s shores, and for much of Leinster. Orange alerts were issued for counties Clare, Galway, Limerick, Mayo and Waterford.
Highest level warning RED ALERT now issued for Leinster as #StormDarwin continues to rage this evening..
Traffic stalled across the country due to a number of overturned vehicles. Shannon and Cork airports were closed for much of the day, and many commuters were left stranded as rail service between Dublin, Limerick, Cork and Kerry was suspended.
Truck overturned due to high winds on M8 at Fermoy. Motorway closure in effect on both lanes to prevent reoccurrence
In what the Electricity Supply Board described as Ireland’s worst power outage since 1998, 215,000 homes were left without power – 170,000 in the southern counties.
This screengrab from the @esbnetworks powercheck gives a picture of the extent of the problems from #stormdarwin
By Wednesday night, the alert code for counties in Munster, Leinster and Connacht had been downgraded to yellow, while Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan remained at an orange alert.
No casualties or serious injuries have been reported.
Four fishermen who were stranded by Clifden Bay were saved by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the Irish Coast Guard in a dramatic rescue.
The Tralee Bay Wetlands Center in Co. Kerry captured footage of the 100 mph winds gusting across the water. (Click photo to play video.)