Hurricane-strength winds battered Ireland and the UK early Friday morning, leaving thousands of homes and businesses without power and disrupting transport across the region.
Winter Storm Éowyn brought record gusts of 183km (114 miles) per hour in Galway in the west of Ireland, according to the Irish meteorological service Met Eireann. ESB, the state-owned energy utility, said that as of 6am local time, 560,000 homes, farms and businesses were without power.
As the storm approached, authorities across Ireland, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland issued red-level weather alerts, closing schools and universities and telling people to shelter in place. Many businesses have shut, and public transport networks have come to a halt.
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled at airports in Ireland and the UK. Many have been grounded at Dublin, Edinburgh and Belfast airports, with dozens of transatlantic services into London’s Heathrow also cancelled.
Aer Lingus Group, British Airways and Ryanair Holdings Plc have all warned of more potential disruptions.
Trains were cancelled across Ireland and Northern Ireland, and most rail routes between England and Scotland were suspended on Friday.