Crews from Northern Ireland Electricity are helping ESB Networks restore power to some 190,000 homes and businesses in the Republic of Ireland today, after stormy weather battered the country yesterday.

ESB Networks crews restored power to more than 700,000 customers through yesterday evening and into the night, ESB Networks said.

Surveys of the damage show lines down, broken poles, and many trees down across lines. Flying debris has also damaged equipment, and transformers need to be replaced.

ESB Networks said crews are making every effort to restore power to customers as quickly as possible, but some customers may have to wait awhile before the lights are back on.

“It is expected that it will be late into this evening before power is restored to the most of the customers and also it is expected that a large number of customers will be still without power tonight,” ESB Networks said in a statement.

“Therefore customers should make preparations for being without supply for a number of days.”

Customers can check ESB Networks Powercheck app to see if their outage has been identified and logged, and ESB Networks’ Twitter feed will be updated with information as it is received.

The National Customer Contact Centre at 1850 372 999 is open 24/7 for customers to report faults, however there may be longer than usual waiting times.