Efforts to restore power and water to homes across the country are set to continue beyond Tuesday with thousands of families still affected despite significant progress reported by ESB Networks and Uisce Éireann over the course of Monday.
ESB Networks said on Monday it had restored electricity to roughly half of the 34,000 homes, farms and businesses impacted overnight by the snow and icy conditions in large parts of the south of the country while Uisce Éireann said about 30,000 people were without water on Monday evening, down from 43,000 at lunchtime.
Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary were said by ESB Networks to be among the counties still worst affected by the weather-related outages on Monday evening, with the organisation bringing in engineering crews from other parts of the country to help with the reconnection work.
Local authority workers, agricultural contractors and members of the Civil Defence and Defence Forces personnel have been working with ESB Networks crews to help get power restored to affected areas. Defence Forces personnel have been assisting the company to access “more challenging fault sites”.
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ESB Networks said the forecast for continued low temperatures meant “power restoration will continue for a number of days in the worst affected areas. This is due to the hazardous weather conditions and challenges faced by our restoration teams when safely accessing fault sites on snow- and ice-covered roads and terrain.
“We acknowledge the disruption to family and commercial life this causes and thank impacted customers, especially those who will remain without power over the coming days, for their patience as our crews work to safely restore power.”
Real-time information on power outages and estimated restoration times are being continuously updated on powercheck.ie, the company said, while damage to the network should be reported by calling 1800 372 999.
Uisce Éireann said many of those impacted by water supply issues were located in Dublin and Cork as well as Limerick, Kerry and Tipperary.
It said supplies were being hit by burst water pipes as well as power outages in a number of pumping stations.
In addition, the agency said supplies to a further 27,000 people in those areas, as well as in Wexford and Laois, were at risk due to low reservoir levels.
The poor weather is expected to continue to affect supplies over the coming week.
It said even accessing some facilities had proved challenging for its crews because of the poor conditions and heavy snow.
The company asked customers to protect outside taps and insulate pipes or tanks that might be vulnerable to freezing or to turn on heating in areas around them to prevent problems at their properties.
Leaks or bursts on the public water networks should be reported to Uisce Éireann at 1800 278 278.
[ Cold snap grips Ireland: how have you been impacted?Opens in new window ]
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