Northern Ireland is in “the eye of the storm” with a real threat to life and property, the First Minister has said.
Some 93,000 homes and businesses were without electricity and police said there were more than 70 reports of trees down and other obstructions on the roads early on Friday as Storm Eowyn battered the region.
Schools, colleges, the courts and many shops are closed while public transport is suspended and some health appointments have been postponed amid a top-level red warning for wind.
(PA Graphics)
A number of flights have also been cancelled, including 16 departures and 16 arrivals at Belfast International Airport and 23 departures and 20 arrivals at Belfast City Airport.
The Met Office has issued a red alert, which covers all of Northern Ireland from 7am on Friday until 2pm, and is warning of “very dangerous conditions” and “widespread disruption”.
NIE Networks said it has activated its emergency plans in response to Storm Eowyn, and said efforts to restore power will start after 2pm when the red weather warning has been lifted.
Police said Friday is expected to see the strongest winds in the region since the Boxing Day storm in 1998 which caused widespread disruption.
Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck said there have been wind speeds in excess of 70mph.
“We’re seeing significant amounts of debris right across the road network,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.
“The road network is dangerous and the message remains stay at home, stay safe and stay off the roads please.”
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First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly have urged people to stay at home.
“We’re asking the public to be very safe, to be very cautious, to take every precaution to ensure that they don’t take any unnecessary travel, please just stay at home if you can,” Ms O’Neill said.
“We’re in the eye of the storm now. We are in the period of the red alert.
“People can see for themselves, the wind has been very much picking up overnight.
“We’ve just been briefed by the Civil Contingencies Group, by the PSNI who are in the lead in terms of the storm response and they tell us that the situation is, as we have outlined yesterday, we’re still in a period of jeopardy in terms of the damage that potentially could be caused as a result of the storm.
“I think the real message we want to get across to your listeners this morning is to please be ultra cautious, to please stay at home if you can and actually we will see how the storm will rage but the scale of the storm, the level of wind that we’ve experienced across the island, which is something that’s never been seen before.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly, PSNI ACC Davy Beck and First Minister Michelle O’Neill speak to the media on Thursday (Mark Marlow/PA)
“The threat is real, and we only can emphasise to people, please take every precaution that you absolutely can.”
Ms Little-Pengelly said: “The strong advice is to stay home.
“And that’s important, of course, because if people go out, the risk to life is from debris because of the high winds, if people go out and get into a situation, then that is calling out those essential workers that are there.
“We don’t want people to have to come out to deal with those.
“So we are advising everybody stays at home. There’s a significant outage on the electricity.”
She described a “very serious storm”.
“The storm will blow over,” Ms Little-Pengelly said.
“The worst of it is here at the moment and over the next number of hours. But, of course, we will get through that.”