The clean-up from Storm Éowyn continued across Northern Ireland today, with many still left without water and electricity.
Three days after Northern Ireland was battered by gusts of over 90mph, thousands continue to be affected by power and water outages.
In Co Fermanagh a family trapped with dwindling food supplies, no heat and no power was rescued by police on Monday afternoon.
In a post on social media, PSNI Fermanagh and Omagh, said its officers responded to a dropped 999 call from the family, and found the long laneway to their property covered in hundreds of fallen trees.
“We set off on foot with some basic supplies from a nearby property crossing several fields to check in on the family and ensure there were no ongoing emergency issues,” a spokesperson said.
“A big thank you to the Forest Service staff in Enniskillen and Greentown environmental who also responded quickly to our call for assistance and started the laborious process of cutting through hundreds of fallen trees as you can see in the picture!
“There are still a lot of rural phone masts, phone lines and electricity lines out of action so please check in on your vulnerable neighbours!
“We are sure there are still many vulnerable people out there who need help at the moment. If you think we can assist, please get in touch and we will do our best to help out alongside our other various government and charity partners.”
On Monday afternoon, NIE confirmed that more than 56,000 people were still without electricity.
Speaking during a visit to NIE headquarters, Secretary of State Hillary Benn said there was still a “way to go” in the clean-up. Specialist engineers have arrived from England to help restore power, but NIE has warned it could be next Monday before all properties are reconnected.
During his visit, Mr Benn said the UK government is “working very hard” to help meet the requests for support for Northern Ireland, including through the mutual support aid.
“This is a practical crisis, and what people need is help — engineers, helicopters, bottled water, generators,” the NI Secretary said.
“These are the things that make a difference to people on the ground while they’re waiting for their lives to get back together and for the electricity supply to be restored.”
Power outages have also been accompanied by water outages, with NI Water yesterday that 1,000 customers are still experiencing a loss of water supply.
In a statement a spokesperson for NI Water said the company will work “day and night” until supplies are returned to normal.
“While we have made significant progress over the weekend, we appreciate there are still approx. 1,000 customers experiencing a loss of water supply,” said a spokesperson. “Numbers can fluctuate depending on burst pipes, air locks etc. We can give the assurance to all those customers that we won’t stop until all our properties are back on supply.
“We are a 24/7 business, and that work will continue day and night until all water supplies are back to normal.”
Grainia Long, chief executive of the Housing Executive said that since Friday they had received over 5,300 calls and issued over 1,300 emergency repairs mostly relating to storm damage, fallen trees and heating issues.
Ms Long added that 1,200 of the reported emergency repairs have been attended to, adding that many more would be addressed on Monday.
Around 60 schools were closed across Northern Ireland today due to damage, and the Department for Education said it had received 154 reports of damage to school buildings.