People turn to community support as thousands still without power

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People turn to community support as thousands still without power

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Terri-Lee Watson

Terri-Lee Watson’s son has Cystic Fibrosis which can be aggravated by cold weather

‘Worst-case scenario’

“The coldness can be really detrimental to his health,” she said.

“A cold could sit on his chest and give him a chest infection.”

The family spent Friday night in their own home, using blankets to stay warm, but have since moved out to stay with family members.

“We’re just so lucky that we have got family up here, because there are so many people who will be stuck at home and have to just make do with what they have,” she said.

“He’s got a nebuliser to do every day. If he didn’t do that, it could affect his health; he could get mucus build-up in his chest.

“It wouldn’t just be a cold to him. It could be a ****** chest infection that could land him in the hospital.

“The one or two days that he has missed his nebuliser hopefully won’t have an effect on his health, but if it were to go on for the full week, it definitely would, and we can’t take that chance.”

Ms Watson said she’s had to do additional physiotherapy on her son to counteract the cold.

She told BBC News NI that she hopes NIE’s estimate of ten days to restore service is the “worst-case scenario”.

“I’m hoping that there’s a good chance that it comes on any day really, or any hour possible,” she said.

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in Northern Ireland will be closed on Monday due to structural damage caused by Storm Éowyn, the education minister has said.

Paul Givan met with the Education Authority (EA) on Saturday and announced that some schools may need to move to remote learning.

The EA maintenance helpline has been operational throughout the weekend and received 154 reports of damage to school buildings.

It ranged in severity from missing roof tiles, fallen trees and serious structural damage.

The managing director of NIE Networks said power has now been restored to 211,000 properties.

Derek Hynes said: “We believe that it will be around 10 days by the time we complete the repairs needed to get power back to everyone.”

The Northern Ireland Secretary, Hilary Benn, said the *** government will offer “every possible support” to the effort to repair damage.

“The scale of the damage brought by this storm is deeply concerning, and I want to express my sincere gratitude to all those working hard to restore electricity, clear fallen trees and debris, and keep people safe,” he said.

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Pacemaker

A number of trees fell down during Storm Éowyn

In the Republic of Ireland, there are over 200,000 customers still without power, down from a peak of 768,000, as a result of Storm Éowyn.

One man, Kacper Dudek, 20,

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, County Donegal, during the storm.

Thousands of customers in

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.

Emergency contacts

To report faults or emergencies you should contact:

Northern Ireland Housing Executive: 03448 920 901

Openreach: 08000 23 20 23

Gas networks: 0800 002001

NI Water: 03457 44 00 88 or visit niwater.com, external

Flooding Incident Line: 0300 2000 100

NIE Networks: 03457 643 643 or visit nienetworks.co.***

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