Storms Leave 57,000 Customers Without Power

Almost 57,000 customers remain without power following the impact of Storm Isha, with Ireland facing further "severe and damaging" gusts as Storm Jocelyn hits the country later today.

While Met Éireann Meteorolgists have insisted that Storm Jocelyn will not be as severe as Storm Isha, concerns remain regarding strong winds damaging those structures which have been already hit.

Speaking today, Meteorologist Joanna Donnelly has said that a lot of hidden damage left following Storm Isha, including weakened trees and hedgerows, could lead to further stress from the new storm.

"We'll have strong winds when kids are getting out of school at times and it's going to be a tricky day if you're out and about", she said. 

The national forecaster have placed two further Status Orange wind warnings, coming into effect for counties Donegal, Mayo and Galway, with the warning for the two Connacht counties coming into effect from 5om, and expiring at midnight.

The warning for Donegal will take effect from 6pm until 2am tomorrow morning. 

Status Yellow Wind warnings are also in place for Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Clare, Kerry, Galway, and Mayo from 12pm, with the same effect coming into Leinster, Monaghan, Cavan, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford and Roscommon from 5pm until 2am. 

Despite more that 178,000 premises having their power restored by ESB networks, following yesterday's peak outage, a senior ESB engineer Brian Tapley has also warned that Storm Jocelyn will make it harder to restore power, possibly leading to more outages. 

Mr Tapley also issued a fresh warning to the public to stay away from fallen trees and structures, and to "treat everything as live". 

Yellow wind warnings have also been place in Northern Ireland, especially, Antrim, Armagh, Down, Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Derry, where strong winds are expected from 4pm until noon tomorrow. 

People have once again been warned to expect difficult travel conditions, along with fallen trees and damage to power lines.