WHAM BRAM

AROUND 25,000 homes, farms and businesses were left without power last night as Storm Bram battered the country with dangerous high-speed winds.

- BY DANNY DE VAAL

The entire island was placed under weather warnings for much of yesterday as the storm raged, knocking trees and power lines and leaving local roads flooded.

Gusts of up to 119kph were recorded amid general wind speeds of up to 78kph at 1pm at the weather station at Sherkin Island.

After a week of persistent rain, Met Eireann warned soils across the country were already saturated and many rivers were approaching bank-full conditions, so additional rainfall was likely to result in surface and river flooding.

At the storm's peak approximately 54,000 properties were without power, mostly in counties Wexford, Cork, Tipperary, Kildare, Dublin, Meath and Westmeath.

A spokesman said crews had been deployed to assess damage but added that further power outages could be expected.

In Northern Ireland, an outage map by NIE Networks showed thousands more properties disconnected from supply.

DISRUPTION

The storm resulted in some travel disruption, with 91 flights cancelled at Dublin Airport and ferry crossings also impacted.

One Ryanair flight from Manchester, which was due to land in Dublin, made two attempts to land at Dublin Airport before diverting back to Manchester. Passengers spent 2.5 hours in the air and arrived back at the airport they departed from.

Meanwhile, dramatic footage showed a private plane lurching towards the runway at Belfast City Airport, being tossed around by the brutal storm as the captain fought to steady the aircraft for landing.