Power outages cause major disruption in Athlone and Moate after storm

Storm Isha turned out the lights for thousands of homes and businesses in the Midlands this week, with the Coosan and Moate areas worst affected locally.

A significant power cut in Moate overnight last night (Monday) forced the closure of Moate Community School and Moate Business College today.

Local national schools were also affected by the enforced closures this week, including St Brigid's Primary School and St Oliver Plunkett Boys NS in Moate, as well as schools in the Mount Temple area. Tubberclair NS was closed on Monday.

Numerous businesses in Moate were also unable to open as scheduled this morning (Tuesday), as the ESB began to restore power to some 1,145 affected homes and commercial premises.

In the Athlone area, a prolonged power outage in Coosan is continuing at the time of writing, with some 290 premises there yet to have their power restored, according to the ESB.

On the Roscommon side of Athlone, there are smaller-scale but equally prolonged outages still affecting some residents in Barrybeg and Bealnamulla.

The N62 Birr Road, outside Athlone, was the scene of two separate incidents, the first of which occurred as the orange-warning level Storm Isha was making its presence felt on Sunday evening.

An Eir telecom pole on the N62, between the Birr turn and Ballinahown, broke at around 6.20pm on Sunday.

"The pole was leaning towards the road, so we closed the road on the advice of the Gardai, and it remained closed until 4pm yesterday to allow Eir carry out repairs," said Willie Ryan, acting manager of the Athlone Moate Municipal District.

"That was quite disruptive on one of our main routes into Athlone. The diversion to Castledaly was not ideal, but it had to be done in a hurry, so that was the major issue we faced on Monday."

Yesterday evening, a little over two hours after the road reopened, a truck on the N62 pulled in to let another vehicle pass. It's understood that the truck's back wheel connected with the soft verge, resulting in it tumbling and landing on its side into a field.

The Gardai, council, and Athlone Fire Service were in attendance at both incidents on the N62, but thankfully it's believed the truck driver escaped uninjured.

It's understood Westmeath County Council received numerous calls about trees that came down during Storm Isha on Sunday night and into Monday, with Delvin, Mullingar, Castlepollard and Athlone among the areas affected.

Mr Ryan said there were clean-up operations on the Old Rail Trail greenway on Monday, but overall the impact of the Storm Isha, from the council's perspective, wasn't as bad as a previous storm before Christmas which carried a red-level alert for some areas.

On Monday morning, Roscommon County Council advised motorists to drive with "extreme care" due to debris on the roads following Storm Isha.

"Crews from Roscommon County Council have been working for many hours and continue to access the impact of the storm, removing trees and making roads safe," the local authority said.

This afternoon, Storm Jocelyn, the second storm to make landfall in Ireland in three days, is due to arrive.

A yellow-level wind warning is coming into effect for the storm in the Midlands counties, while orange-level alerts are being issued for Galway, Mayo and Donegal.