ABSOLUTE CARNAGE

50,000 homes without electricity | Winds gust to 120km/h.causing flash flooding | Storm Betty uproots trees and power lines

UP to 50,000 homes and businesses remained without power yesterday after Storm Betty battered the country causing flash flooding, uprooting trees and felling power lines. 

ESB Networks said storm force winds gusting up to 120km/h caused damage to the electricity network overnight, affecting just over 70,000 homes, farms and businesses.

A 94-year-old woman had a miracle escape after a large tree fell on her house overnight in the South Dublin suburb of Rathmines.

June Judd told how she was woken up at around midnight by the storm but noted that the mature tree was still standing.

She told RTE news: “I went back to bed and next thing I heard something crash, and I had a terrible pain in my head.”

Later on when she looked outside she realised the tree had fallen towards the house. “I was amazed,” she said. “It has been standing here for a long time.”

Staff at the famous Clontarf Baths reported that their local “paradise” had been left “destroyed” overnight as a result of the storm.

Local volunteers helped with the clean up with one dubbing the storm as like being attacked by a “sea monster” which left  “carnage, carnage, absolute carnage” in its wake.

Lifeguard Anne Miller said: “To be honest it’s very upsetting. It’s paradise working here, and to see it like this after the work we’ve put in... It’s just destroyed.”