35,000 homes, business left powerless after wind storm hits Ireland

DUBLIN - About 35,000 homes, farms and businesses are without power after an overnight wind storm hit Ireland, said a major electricity supplier in the country on Thursday.

The worst-hit areas are the country's west and northwest with parts of the Irish capital Dublin in the east also affected, said Electricity Supply Board (ESB), a state-owned power company which supplies the majority of electricity to the island country.

Crews of the ESB have been dispatched to various affected areas to restore the power cut off by the wind storm, it said, adding that the power cuts were mainly triggered by fallen trees on power lines because of strong winds, which reportedly travelled at a speed up to 125 km/h in some of the affected areas.

Latest news coming in showed that power has been restored to 9,000 affected customers with the restoration of power to the remaining affectees expected to go through the entire Thursday, according to the ESB.

The fallen trees have also caused disruptions to traffic in the country, especially in the west, northwest and north counties of Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, said local media, adding that fire brigades have been mobilized to clear the fallen trees on roads in parts of the country.

The EBS has advised local people to avoid fallen wires as they could be extremely dangerous.

So far no casualties have been reported in the wind storm that started to lash the country late last night and is beginning to die down after noon's time on Thursday.