Storm Éowyn: High winds continue as nearly a million without power

Nearly one million properties are without power in the UK and Ireland and significant travel disruption continues after Storm Éowyn brought gusts of up to 114mph (183 km/h).

One man died after a tree fell on a car in Ireland, while Scotland and Northern Ireland both saw widespread property damage as well as delays and cancellations to trains, planes, and ferries.

While the fiercest gusts have passed, strong winds are expected to continue, and parts of England and Wales could see up to 80mm of rainfall over the weekend.

Yellow warnings for rain, wind, snow, and ice are in place across parts of the UK, while flood warnings and alerts are in place in southern England, north Wales, and west Scotland.

In Ireland, 625,000 homes and businesses were still without power on Friday evening, and the country’s Electricity Supply Board said power would take a “significant number of days” to restore.

Around 138,000 people were without water, a figure Irish Water said was likely to increase because of power outages at treatment plants and pumping stations.

Some 214,000 properties in Northern Ireland, 106,000 in Scotland, and 20,000 in north-west England were also without power.

Northern Ireland Electricity said it could be up to 10 days before all those affected are reconnected.

The infrastructure department said it would take days to assess the damage, with more than 1,800 fallen trees, branches, and other debris blocking roads.

Northern Irish Education Minister Paul Givan said 60 schools had reported “significant damage to some buildings” and that officials were working to establish which ones would be unable to open on Monday.

Despite the strongest winds having passed the storm is still expected to bring gusts of more than 80mph (128km/h) across the coast and hills of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

ScotRail said engineers would be working through the night on Friday to clear trees and other debris from tracks, but that there was “extensive damage to overhead lines” which would need to be repaired before trains could run.

It said services would continue to be “heavily impacted” on Saturday and that customers should not expect trains to operate before 12:00 GMT at the earliest.

Edinburgh Airport said it would still be operating under “challenging conditions” on Saturday and that the disruption on Friday would have knock-on impact on services over the next few days.

Glasgow and Belfast International said passengers should continue to check the latest travel information with their airline before travelling.

CalMac, the main operator of ferries off Scotland’s west coast, is still experiencing some disruption, although the majority of ferry crossings in the Irish Sea – including those by Irish Ferries and Stena Line, both of which had to cancel services on Friday – appear to be operating normally.

National Rail said winds and rain would affect some services in northern England into Saturday.

Passengers with Avanti West Coast are advised not to travel north of Preston, while those with LNER are advised not to travel north of York.

Mark Jones, who lives in Coldingham in the Scottish Borders, described Storm Éowyn hitting his area like “an earthquake”.

On Friday morning, he saw his corrugated iron carport being lifted out of the ground and tipped into an area of woodland.

“I didn’t feel seriously alarmed because there was about 30ft between me and the carport and it just lifted up quite steadily and tilted over,” he recalled.

“I just think the word ‘storm’ is too mild for what we have witnessed here. Only a hurricane could do that.”

Liam Downs, an electrician from Cardross on the north side of the Firth of Clyde, has been driving up and down the coast helping the local community, including removing trees from the road.

While going to check on a client in nearby Rosneath, he saw “about 10 trees” fall within the space of 10 minutes which “completely blocked us in the one-way road”.

“As we were driving along the coast earlier, waves were coming up onto the road and my van literally went from being in the right lane to being up on the curb,” he said, adding: “Thankfully, we’re in quite a big van”.

Six UK warnings remain in place:

• Yellow warning for wind across most of Scotland from midnight on Friday until 15:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for snow and ice in much of Scotland from midnight on Friday until 11:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for snow and ice for Northern Ireland from 19:00 on Friday until 10:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for ice for Midlands, east and south-east England, and Wales from 03:00 until 10:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for wind for south-east and west England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and south-west Scotland from 08:00 until 15:00 on Sunday
• Yellow warning for rain for Wales, southern England, and the Midlands from 08:00 on Sunday until 06:00 on Monday

The Environment Agency has issued flood warnings at Britford in Salisbury and for areas around the River Till on the Salisbury Plain.

Less severe flood alerts are in place for parts of Gloucester, Reading, and Luton as well as areas along the southern coast.

Flood warnings are also in place in Scotland in the towns of Ayr and Troon, on the River Earn west of Perth, on the River Oykel near Strath Oykel, and at the Churchill Barriers in the Orkney Islands, while flood alerts are in force along the western coast.

Natural Resources Wales has issued flood alerts for areas around the River Dee near Wrexham and in the town of Pwllheli.

Additional reporting by George Wright.