Severe disturbances in Ireland and the United Kingdom

Storm Isha left tens of thousands of homes without power in Ireland and the UK. More than 235,000 homes and businesses were without power on Monday morning, particularly in the northwest of the country, Ireland's electricity network manager, ESB, quoted Irish public media RTE as saying.

A network manager, Brian Tapley, explained to RTE that power should be restored during the day, but it could take several days for some customers. According to RTE, around 150 flights – or 25% of traffic – were canceled at Dublin Airport on Sunday, but traffic resumed on Monday morning. In Northern Ireland, 45,000 customers are without power, according to the network manager.

“The whole country” was affected

On the neighboring island of Great Britain, more than 30,000 customers are without power, mainly in the north, the director general of the Energy Networks Association told the BBC Lawrence Slade on Monday morning. “One of the worrying aspects is that the storm has hit almost the entire country“, leading to difficulties in sending technicians across Britain to do the work,” he explained.

A red warning was in place for strong winds overnight in Scotland, where no trains were running on Monday morning due to flooding and downed trees on tracks. Traffic is expected to resume around noon. “Hundreds of technicians are already armed with chainsaws», underlined the spokesperson of Network Rail Railway Network. The British Met Office reported gusts of up to 160km/h in the north-east of England. The ninth storm named Cyclone Isha since September.