Ireland works to restore power, telecom services after storms

providers are battling to restore services to almost 14,000 customers cut off after severe storm damage, state media reported. The repair crews of electricity utility company ESB are striving to resume electricity supply to around 5,000 customers cut off by storms which damaged power lines across the country, state broadcaster RTE reported. Over 65,000 customers who had been cut off were reconnected by Friday. The ESB said almost 1,000 faults remain with 5,000 homes and businesses without power, the majority in the south and southwest, but warned that progress may be slow in some cases. The company said it has diverted resources to the worst-affected areas in the south and southwest. "In situations where storms have caused extensive damage to the electricity networks across the country, fixing the smaller more localized faults can be frustratingly slow for both customers and network technicians," the company said in a statement. Meanwhile, technical teams of telecom firm Eircom are working to fix faults on their network which have left 8,700 customers without landline or broadband services. Repair work on Friday was hampered by the poor weather conditions. The number of customers without services rose by 500 since Friday but Eircom said this was expected as more people got in contact to report faults. Aroun 350 workers are now working to fix the faults with 700 on duty on Friday, the same number as will be working on Monday, Eircom added. Ireland, over the last few days, was experiencing the worst winter weather for 15 years, which wreaked havoc for travellers and homeowners alike and left more than 70,000 homes without power. Met Eireann, the Irish national meteorological service, warned that while the worst winds were now over, unsettled conditions would continue for the next few days. The storm warning was been downgraded to a Code Yellow late Friday which is the least severe weather warning for the entire country.