Thousands in Ireland still without power after Storm Éowyn, as more wild weather wallops UK, France

Advertisement

Advertise with us

LONDON (AP) — Ireland called in help from England and France as repair crews worked to restore power to hundreds of thousands of people after the most disruptive storm for years. Even as the cleanup continued, more wet and windy weather hit the U.K., Ireland and France on Sunday.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/01/2025 (614 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON (AP) — Ireland called in help from England and France as repair crews worked to restore power to hundreds of thousands of people after the most disruptive storm for years. Even as the cleanup continued, more wet and windy weather hit the U.K., Ireland and France on Sunday.

More than 1 million people in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland were left without electricity after Storm Éowyn (pronounced AY-oh-win) roared through on Friday.

In Ireland, which suffered the heaviest damage, the wind snapped telephone poles, ripped apart a Dublin ice rink and even toppled a giant wind turbine. A wind gust of 114 mph (183 kph) was recorded on the west coast, breaking a record set in 1945.

A car abandoned in Tryst Road in Larbert surrounded by fallen trees after Storm Eowyn, in Larbert, Scotland, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP)
A car abandoned in Tryst Road in Larbert surrounded by fallen trees after Storm Eowyn, in Larbert, Scotland, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP)

The state electricity company, ESB Networks, said that more than 300,000 properties in Ireland still had no power on Sunday, down from 768,000 on Friday. The Irish military was also helping out, but the company said that it could be two more weeks before electricity is restored to everyone.

Irish Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary said authorities were “throwing everything at it.”

“We’re bringing additional people from England today and we’re looking for people from France, additional technicians,” he told broadcaster RTE. “What we’re focused on is getting our infrastructure back up, getting our power back up, getting our water and connectivity back up as soon as is possible.”

Another 75,000 people were still without power on Sunday in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom and neighbors the Republic of Ireland.

At least two people died during the storm. Kacper Dudek, 20, was killed when a tree fell on his car in County Donegal in northwest Ireland, local police said.

Police in Scotland said that a 19-year-old man, who hasn’t been named, died in a hospital on Saturday after a tree fell on his car in the southwestern town of Mauchline on Friday.

More rainy and windy weather battered the U.K. and Ireland on Sunday, with a gust of 82 mph (132 kph) recorded at Predannack in southwest England. It was part of a new system named Storm Herminia by weather authorities in Spain, which was bracing for severe impact.

Workers clear a fallen tree on Grove Park Drive as ESB networks continue to reconnect homes and businesses across the country after Storm Eowyn, in Dublin, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Brian Lawless/PA via AP)
Workers clear a fallen tree on Grove Park Drive as ESB networks continue to reconnect homes and businesses across the country after Storm Eowyn, in Dublin, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Brian Lawless/PA via AP)

France’s weather service issued warnings for several regions, notably in Normandy and Brittany in the northwest. Canals and rivers broke their banks, roads were closed and evacuations were ordered in some areas. The mayor of the Brittany city of Rennes said that it was experiencing its worst flooding in four decades. Local television showed families emptying out ground-floor rooms flooded by water a meter (three feet) high.

A 73-year-old British sailor was reported missing off the Atlantic coast near Bordeaux, France, according to the regional maritime authority. It said that he went boating alone Saturday despite storm warnings. His badly damaged boat was later found empty.

___

Angela Charlton contributed to this report from Paris.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

What’s open, what’s closed, what’s up in Winnipeg on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Sept. 30, 2026

Free Press staff 4 minute read Preview

What’s open, what’s closed, what’s up in Winnipeg on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Sept. 30, 2026

Free Press staff 4 minute read Sunday, Sep. 27, 2026

The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, or Orange Shirt Day, as it's known in Manitoba, happens Sept. 30 with many commemorative community events scheduled.

Read
Sunday, Sep. 27, 2026

Obsessed stalker who shot, killed young woman at bus stop in 1993 dies behind bars at age 74

Erik Pindera 3 minute read Preview

Obsessed stalker who shot, killed young woman at bus stop in 1993 dies behind bars at age 74

Erik Pindera 3 minute read Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2026

A Winnipeg man who stalked a woman for several years before shooting her dead in the street in 1993 has died in Stony Mountain prison.

On Monday, 74-year-old Ronald Edd Bell died of apparent natural causes at the federal prison just north of Winnipeg, the Correctional Service of Canada said.

Bell had been in prison since May 30, 1994, when he was given a life sentence with no chance of parole for 18 years for killing Terry-Lyn Babb, 25, on Jan. 21, 1993.

Bell walked up behind an unsuspecting Babb, who was waiting at a bus stop at Sherbrook Street and Wolseley Avenue, and shot her in the head with a pistol in front of horrified witnesses, says the Free Press report of his sentencing hearing.

Read
Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2026

Ferraro gets call-up to the Jets

Mike McIntyre 6 minute read Preview

Ferraro gets call-up to the Jets

Mike McIntyre 6 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:56 PM CDT

Landon Ferraro vividly recalls the moment his NHL career came to an extremely painful end — Oct. 20, 2017, in downtown Winnipeg.

“My last play was a breakaway on Connor Hellebuyck,” Ferraro told the Free Press this week.

“I tried to poke the puck past the first D. It was me and (Dustin) Byfuglien chasing it down. I thought he was going to throw me across the ice, so I tried to cut in on him, and he moved. I overextended, and I literally ripped my abductor off the bone and gave myself a hernia.”

Ferraro — at the time playing forward for the visiting Minnesota Wild — said he managed to get off a weak shot that hit the Jets goaltender square in the chest. But his 77th appearance in the big leagues would be his last following previous stops with Detroit (which drafted him 32nd overall in 2009) and Boston.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 6:56 PM CDT

Port of Churchill signs agreement with Dutch port

Aaron Epp 2 minute read Preview

Port of Churchill signs agreement with Dutch port

Aaron Epp 2 minute read Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2026

Arctic Gateway Group, operator of the Port of Churchill, has signed an agreement with the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands to attract business and strengthen supply chains linking Western Canada and Europe.

The agreement enables the two ports to work together to develop new trade in critical minerals and energy products, connect Canadian producers with European buyers, and identify opportunities to improve the supply chain from Western Canadian resource projects through Churchill and into European markets.

The Port of Rotterdam is Europe’s largest port and home to more than 3,000 businesses across its industrial complex, serving as a major gateway for critical raw materials and energy.

Meanwhile, the Port of Churchill has been identified as a transformative national strategy for Canada and is emerging as a northern trade corridor connecting Western Canada’s resources to global markets.

Read
Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2026

Work aims to share Jordan River Anderson’s heroic legacy with young audiences

Ben Waldman 4 minute read Preview

Work aims to share Jordan River Anderson’s heroic legacy with young audiences

Ben Waldman 4 minute read 5:04 PM CDT

It isn’t often that Yvette Nolan is brought to tears by her own work.

But at the Montreal premiere of Jordan, the playwright found herself weeping in the aisles.

“I was a mess,” she recalls.

But all around her, the audience of children at Montreal’s Geordie Theatre were cheering at the conclusion of Nolan’s latest work, a fable centred on the heroic influence of Jordan River Anderson, a Norway House boy who spent two years living in hospital because the federal and provincial governments couldn’t agree on which level of elected office should pay for his at-home care.

Read
5:04 PM CDT

Dynacare workers provide essential services that must be maintained during strike, labour board rules

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Preview

Dynacare workers provide essential services that must be maintained during strike, labour board rules

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Updated: 6:30 PM CDT

The Manitoba Labour Board has ruled Dynacare workers are essential employees and their services must be maintained during a labour dispute.

Read
Updated: 6:30 PM CDT