By The Associated Press’s Jill Lawless
London Following the most destructive storm in years, Ireland requested assistance from England and France as repair teams attempted to bring power back to hundreds of thousands of people. The United Kingdom, Ireland, and France experienced additional windy and rainy weather on Sunday, despite the ongoing cleanup efforts.
Storm Owyn, which is pronounced “AY-oh-win,” raged over Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland on Friday, leaving over a million people without electricity.
The wind caused the worst damage in Ireland, where it overturned a massive wind turbine, blew apart a Dublin ice rink, and snapped telephone poles. On the west coast, a wind gust of 114 mph (183 kph) was recorded, shattering a 1945 record.
Ireland’s public energy provider, ESB Networks, said that over 300,000 homes were without power on Sunday, compared to 768,000 on Friday. The Irish military was also providing assistance, but according to the firm, it might take another two weeks before everyone’s electricity is restored.
Authorities were doing everything they could, according to Irish Social Protection Minister Dara Calleary.
He told broadcaster RTE, “We’re bringing more people from England today, and we’re looking for people from France, additional technicians.” We are concentrating on restoring our infrastructure, power, water, and connectivity as quickly as possible.
Northern Ireland, a region of the United Kingdom that borders the Republic of Ireland, still had 75,000 people without power on Sunday.
The storm claimed the lives of at least two persons. According to local authorities, 20-year-old Kacper Dudek was killed in County Donegal, northwest Ireland, when a tree collapsed on his vehicle.
According to Scottish police, a 19-year-old guy who has not been identified passed away in a hospital on Saturday after a tree in the southwest town of Mauchline fell on his vehicle on Friday.
A gust of 82 mph (132 kph) was recorded at Predannack in southwest England on Sunday, as further rainy and windy conditions continued to pummel the United Kingdom and Ireland. Spanish meteorological officials dubbed it Storm Herminia, a new system that was expected to have a significant impact.
On Sunday, January 26, 2025, in Denny, Scotland, a view of the damage to the side of the Co-op store following Storm Eowyn. (AP via Andrew Milligan/PA)AP
The French weather service issued warnings for a number of areas, most notably the northwest regions of Brittany and Normandy. Roads were blocked, rivers and canals overflowed, and in certain places, evacuation orders were issued. Rennes, a city in Brittany, is facing its worst floods in forty years, according to its mayor. Families were seen on local television leaving ground-floor rooms that were three feet (one meter) high with water.
The regional maritime authority said that a British sailor, age 73, went missing off the Atlantic coast close to Bordeaux, France. According to the report, he went boating by himself on Saturday in defiance of storm warnings. Later, his severely damaged boat was discovered to be empty.
This report was contributed to from Paris by Angela Charlton.
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