Thousands Without Power As Hurricane Ophelia Takes Hold

There are thousands of homes without power this morning, mainly in the south of Ireland, as Hurricane Ophelia is making its way towards Ireland.

ESB Networks report that close to 5,000 people are currently without power, with major outages in areas of Cork and Kerry.

There are more than 1,600 people without power at Woodford near Killarney in Co.Kerry while almost 1,300 have no electricity in Bishopstown and Ballingcollig in Co. Cork.

People have also been warned by the electricity company not to approach any fallen electricity wires under any circumstances.

#Ophelia Update-Do not approach fallen wires under any circumstances, Theses are likely to be live. more info here https://t.co/hfkjdiOOpl
— ESB Networks (@ESBNetworks) October 15, 2017

The Head of Corporate Affairs at ESB has warned that widespread power outages are expected to take place country wide.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Bernardine Maloney urged people not to phone in if they have power outages to keep the lines free for emergency calls.

Ms Maloney also said that after Storm Darwin hit in 2014, close to 215,000 people were without power and it took up to ten days for everyone's electricity to be restored.

ESB has currently no estimated restoration time and are advising customers to keep up to date with the areas affected by power outages.

If you are in a dangerous situation, you should call the ESB on 1850 372 999.

You can check the live updated map for any outages, here.