Live: Roofs blown off homes, flights cancelled and members of the public injured in Cork city as Storm Darragh hits

3:00pm:

A spokesman for Cork Airport said Storm Darragh had led to 11 cancellations and 9 diversions in flights in and out of the international hub.  

The cancelled flights included Ryanair flights from Cork to London Stansted, Manchester, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol as well as KLM flights to and from Amsterdam, Aer Lingus Regional flights to and from Bristol and an Aer Lingus flight to Heathrow.

11.10am:

According to a statement issued at 11am by Cork County Council, the local authority received more than 100 reports of fallen trees and storm debris across the county.

“Cork County Council crews were out throughout the night and additional crews were mobilised this morning,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“North and East Cork were particularly impacted however reports were received from across the county.

⚠️Cork County Council received more than 100 reports of fallen trees and debris overnight and this morning. North and East Cork were particularly impacted however reports were received from across the county.

Council crews and contractors remain on the ground clearing roads and… pic.twitter.com/OVGXqvIUJZ

— Cork County Council (@Corkcoco) December 7, 2024

 “Contractors and crews remain on the ground clearing roads and will continue to work throughout the day. Most roads are passable now with care.

“Some road closures remain in place where trees have fallen on overhead cables. Cork County Council is working with utility companies to ensure that these roads can be reopened as soon as possible.

“The public is advised to report any storm damage to Cork County Council’s Out of Hours number 021 4800048.”

10.22am

Many households around Cork are among the 400,000 homes and businesses left without power on Saturday morning following a night of winds up to 140km per hour brought by Storm Darragh, the fourth named storm of this year’s season, which is still passing over Ireland.

The Status Orange wind alert in Cork and other counties was due to expire at 10am this morning but a Status Yellow alert will remain in force until 3pm. A Status Red warning for six counties on the Western seaboard, including Clare, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal, expired at 3am on Saturday morning.

According to Cork City Fire Brigade Second Officer, Victor Shine, the service responded to over 28 calls since 10pm on Friday night. 

These included fallen trees, telegraph and electricity poles, fire alarms set off by the storm, medical emergencies and crews are still at the scenes of three incidents where the roof was blown off the house or badly damaged by the storm in and around Cork city.

According to his colleague, Cork City Fire Service Third Officer Gerry Myers, four crews were kept busy the whole night answering different calls relating to Storm Darragh.

“We had 28 calls overnight – the most serious was a roof came off in Woodvale in Glanmire around 1.30-2 this morning – there’s a second one ready to go,” he said. 

“Overall there were multiple trees down across the city and suburb, ESB cables down that had to be protected until their crews arrived.

“We had an unusual one in the Grange area where a man lost two digits because he fell while trying to get home – when he got back to the crew that were nearby, he had lost the tops of two of his digits.” 

A number of flights, both arrivals and departures, were either cancelled entirely, delayed or diverted on the Cork Airport schedule on Saturday morning. These included scheduled arrivals from Amsterdam, Bristol and London Heathrow. The follow on departures to these destinations were also cancelled and a flight scheduled to land in Cork from Faro in Portugal had to be diverted to Dublin Airport.

ESB Networks crews have been working since early morning assessing the damage, making the network safe, and restoring electricity ‘where safe to do so’.

However, an ESB Networks spokesperson said ‘further outages can be expected from potentially damaging gusts’.

"Given the extent of the storm, estimated restoration times will be updated throughout the day as fault sites are assessed and restoration work progresses – these will be available on www.PowerCheck.ie."

According to a post by Cork County Council on its social media channels, driving conditions across the county ‘remain challenging with debris and fallen trees’.

There’s also significant disruption on rail lines with delays on arrivals to Cork’s Kent Station and departures from there to Heuston Station in Dublin this morning.

9.34am:

Thousands of people are without power after Storm Darragh swept across Ireland overnight.

ESB Networks confirmed that around 395,000 homes and businesses had been left without power on Saturday morning as a result of the storm.

Crews began assessing damage early on Saturday morning and are restoring supply where safe to do so.

The Echo understands that at least three homes in the city have had their roofs blown off.

There are numerous electricity and telephone poles down, trees with hundreds of fire alarms set off. Cork City fire crews responded to over 30 calls since 10pm last night.

There were reports of fallen trees and debris on many roads on Saturday morning – motorists are advised to travel with caution.

A number of flight cancellations have been announced at Dublin Airport and travellers are advised to check with their airlines before travelling.

Met Éireann recorded gusts of 141km/h at Mace Head in Co Galway at 11pm on Friday night, while gusts of 120km/h were recorded at Shannon, Co Clare, and gusts of 115km/h were reported in Co Cork.

Some roads in Cork, Kerry and Sligo became “impassable” shortly after the storm’s arrival due to fallen trees, while other forms of debris including electrical wires posed a hazard.

ESB Networks said the high winds caused damage to electricity infrastructure, particularly in counties subject to the red warnings – Clare, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal and Wicklow.

ESB said it would publish estimated restoration times as soon as possible.

The entire State is covered by a Met Éireann orange warning for wind. In Munster and Connacht, that warning came into effect at 8pm on Friday and will extend to 10am on Saturday.

The orange alert for Leinster and counties Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan came into effect two hours later at 10pm and will also lift at 10am on Saturday.

A Met Éireann yellow wind warning covering the whole State came into place at 3pm on Friday. It will remain in effect after the orange warnings lift and will be in place until 3pm on Saturday.

A yellow warning for rain in Connacht, and counties Clare, Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Longford, Louth, Meath and Westmeath came into place at 10am on Friday and will lift at 10am on Saturday.

In the North, the Met Office has issued an amber wind warning covering the whole region from 1am on Saturday to 9pm.

A yellow rain warning came into effect in Northern Ireland at 3pm on Friday and will lift at 12pm on Saturday. A yellow wind warning also came into place at 3pm on Friday.