THE first victim of Storm Eowyn has been named as emergency services battle desperately to get the country back on its feet.
Kacper Dudek, 20, tragically died after a tree fell on his car at Feddyglass on the Lifford to Letterkenny road on Friday.
His body was removed from the scene to the mortuary in Letterkenny University Hospital.
A post-mortem examination will take place in due course.
As locals struggled to come to terms with the tragedy, major clean-up efforts were underway following the record-breaking storm which hit on Friday.
Storm Eowyn caused devastation nationwide as it ripped through buildings, trees and power lines and left a trail of destruction in its path.
Record 183kph winds battered the country, leaving thousands of homes across the country without electricity this weekend.
Some 402,000 homes are still without power as ESB crews work tirelessly to restore lines.
They said roughly 366,000 homes, farms and businesses had their power restored so far, but warned that others could be left waiting for several days.
ESB Networks acknowledged that “the impact on customers and damage to the electricity network nationwide is unprecedented”.
Siobhan Wynne of ESB Networks told RTE radio earlier: “Our crews are out on the ground. They’ve been out all morning, restoring power and assessing the damage out on site.
“We would be hoping to get a large numbers of customers restored over the course of this weekend, but for the really badly impacted areas, we will be looking at over a week for those customers.
“We are aware that there is further impending weather on the horizon. We’re monitoring it, and we will assess whether that’s going to impact us. It may hamper our restoration effort, but we will continue and we just assess it as we go along.
“We have been in contact with other utilities in both the UK and in other European utilities, so we’re just awaiting to hear back from them in terms of their own damage and whether they’re going to be able to release crews to us.”
The National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) met today and are due to meet again as clean-up efforts progress.
But they warned that full restoration could take up to a week in the worst affected areas.
Keith Leonard, Chair of the NECG said: “Although the recovery stage is now well underway, the damage caused by Storm Éowyn will still present hazards on our roads, so I’m asking drivers to continue taking extra care this weekend.
“In particular, please heed the advice from the ESB – never approach fallen power lines and report such cases to ESB Emergency Services.
“Major clean-up and road clearance operations should also be left to the emergency services and professional operators who are trained to do such work safely.
“The NECG continues to focus on co-ordinating efforts to restore power, water, telecommunications and other services to the many homes, farms and businesses affected by this storm.
“A whole of Government effort is underway to ensure we get the right resources to the right places and get the country back to normal as soon as possible, with the Defence Forces and many state agencies, including the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Coillte, providing manpower, resources and assistance to clear obstructions and to help ESB Networks to restore connection to those still without power.
“There will continue to be significant impacts to services across all sectors in the coming days due the severity of the impact to the power distribution network, but every effort is being made to restore power and services as fast as humanly possible.”
Newly elected Taoiseach Michael Martin thanked all those helping in the effort to respond to the ferocious storm, and echoed the warnings of the NECG.
He said: “The destruction caused by some of the strongest winds on record has been unprecedented, and there is still a huge amount of work needed in the days ahead to restore electricity, water and communications to hundreds of thousands of people.
“I’m grateful for the efforts of multiple state agencies to help those most in need, and we understand how difficult it is for homes and businesses across the island.
“This is a whole of Government effort including ESB, EirGrid, Irish Water, Local Authorities, the Defence Forces, Civil Defence, the NPWS, Coillte and others.
“I’ve been briefed by the Chair of the National Emergency Coordination Group, which will meet again today, and every effort is being made to get high voltage transmission lines up and running, homes reconnected and water supplies secured.”
He urged that every effort was being made to get high voltage transmission lines up and running, homes reconnected and water supplies secured.
Mr Martin added: “My Government will fully assess the situation in the coming days to see what supports we can offer people and businesses caught up in the aftermath of this storm.”
More than 120,000 people were also still without water, Irish Water confirmed as they explained that crews were working overtime.
Head of water operations at Irish Water, Margaret Attridge, told RTE One O’Clock News: “Over the course of today, we will be continuing to get generators out to site, to get treatment plants back into production.
“Where we cannot connect up a generator now, we have alternative water supplies in the form of tankers going out, situated in locations in communities like church, car parks, GAA pitch grounds. Information of where those locations are can be found on our website.”
As the massive Storm Eowyn clean-up operation continues, weather chiefs have warned of another storm brewing.
Alan O’Reilly from Carlow Weather said Storm Herminia is set to hit Spain, but it will bring us wet and windy weather tomorrow and on Monday.
