High winds continue as nearly a million without power

Nearly one million properties are without power in the UK and Ireland while trains and ferries have been cancelled as emergency responders work to fix the damage caused by Storm Éowyn.

The storm brought gusts of more than 100 mph (161 km/h) on Friday, leaving one man dead after a tree fell on a car in Ireland.

While the fiercest gusts passed on Friday, Storm Éowyn – pronounced AY-oh-win – is expected to bring strong winds into the weekend.

An amber warning for wind is in place for parts of Scotland until 06:00 GMT on Saturday, and all trains in Scotland remain cancelled until 12:00. Yellow warnings for rain, wind, snow and ice will last as long as until Monday morning in other areas.

Hundreds of trees have fallen, causing damage to properties, blocking roads and disrupting train lines.

Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board said it will take a “significant number of days” to bring back power, while Northern Irish officials warned it could be up to 10 days before all those affected are reconnected.

In Ireland, 625,000 homes and businesses were still without power on Friday evening and around 138,000 people without water.

About 214,000 properties had no power in Northern Ireland, 106,000 in Scotland and 20,000 in north-west England.

Northern Ireland’s infrastructure department said it would take days to assess the storm’s 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”.

A key focus was identifying schools unable to open on Monday and providing information to parents, he said on X.

“Public services and society has been significantly impacted by the storm that will require a collective and co-ordinated effort in the days ahead to fix,” he added.

While the strongest winds have 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.

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”.

Nine UK warnings remain in place:

• Amber warning for wind across parts of Scotland from 13:00 on Friday to 06:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for wind across most of the country from midnight on Friday until 23:59 on Sunday
• Yellow warning for snow in parts of Scotland from 06:00 until 23:59 on Friday
• Yellow warning for snow and ice for Northern Ireland from 19:00 on Friday until 10:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for wind in parts of Scotland from midnight until 15:00 on Saturday
• Yellow warning for snow and ice in parts of Scotland from midnight until 11:00 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 rain for Wales and most of England from 08:00 on Sunday until 06:00 on Monday
• 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