Storm Darwin set to continue

The hurricane-type storm, which brought winds of up to 160 kph last night, is set to rage on over the weekend, according to Met Eireann.

Although the worse part of the storm has passed, strong winds are set to continue across the country for the next few days. Storm Darwin, as it's been named, ripped across the country last night leaving a trail of destruction and 260,000 homes without power.

Luckily Cavan didn't experience the strong winds seen by other parts of the country, and currently less than 65 people in Cavan are without power and ESB expects to have the electricity restored to the county around lunch time. ESB has even drafted in electrical workers from Northern Ireland to fix the power lines across the country quicker.

No accidents were reported in the area to Gardaí, however they are appealing for people to check in on neighbours, especially elderly friends and relatives after the storm.

The high winds cause destruction across the country bring power lines down, as well as closuring Shannon airport and cork airport.

Storm Darwin is set to be one of the worse storms recorded by Met Eireann in the last 16 years. 

“In terms of destruction it's probably the worst we've seen in a while.Today our highest winds were around 86 knots (160kph), so we're just under record territory for the south and west,” said a spokesperson for Met Eireann.

“This is the end of a month of storms so structures can already be loosened. The storm over Christmas 1998 might be the last time we've had anything quite as widespread, or caused as much damage.”

However Cavan was lucky not to be the worse affected area of the storm, other places across the country like Shannon experienced winds of 150kph, that lifted a small plane of the runway before it smashed to the ground.

Although the stormy weather is set to continue Met Eireann have said it will be not be as bad as the winds seen yesterday.