Almost 30,000 homes in Ireland and 500 properties in Scotland have been left without power after Storm Barra swept in from the Atlantic bringing severe winds, rain and snow.
The latest outages came days after the final homes in Britain were reconnected after Storm Arwen, which caused “catastrophic damage” to electricity networks mainly in north-east Scotland, affecting 135,000 properties.
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The north-west of Ireland and Scotland bore the brunt of the second day of the storm, when winds gusted at 80mph, parts of England and Wales flooded and emergency vans were dispatched to people in remote areas of Scotland.
Waves on the seafront at New Brighton in Merseyside on Wednesday as Storm Barra hit the UK and Ireland. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA
About 1,000 homes in Scotland suffered power cuts on Wednesday morning with flood warnings in 11 areas.
John Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister, said the 511 households still affected were expected to be reconnected by 7pm on Wednesday. He said the continuing problems were discussed at an emergency civil resilience meeting chaired by Nicola Sturgeon on Wednesday morning.
He acknowledged the “inconvenience and hardship” caused for those affected – some of whom had only recently had their power switched back on after the damage caused by Storm Arwen.
Flooding was reported in Cambridgeshire around Ely while counties in the south-west of England and in Wales remained under a yellow weather warning until 6pm on Wednesday.
Bryngwyn comprehensive school in Llanelli, Wales was forced to shut temporarily after gusts of more than 70mph ripped part of its roof off on Tuesday evening.
In Ireland the north-west bore the brunt of the storm overnight, and the severe weather was not expected to abate until Wednesday afternoon. Schools remained closed in 12 counties as electricity and water authorities worked to restore supplies in the next 24 hours.
By 5pm the head of forecasting at Met Éireann said the country had moved into the “tail end” of the extreme weather event and weather warnings started to lift across the country.
Seawater floods the Royal Oak pub in Langstone, Hampshire, during Storm Barra. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA
Electricity supplies had been restored to about 30,000 of the 59,000 hit by Barra in Ireland while Irish Water was working to repair supply to 68,000 customers.
In Northern Ireland about 1,000 homes were without power on Wednesday morning with the strongest gust reaching 75mph at Orlock, County Down.
Met Éireann said the county would experience severe or damaging gusts of between 62-80mph with localised stronger winds likely.
“Owing to a combination of high waves, storm surge and high tide, coastal flooding is expected. Disruption to power and travel are likely,” the forecaster said.
About 8,000 homes in the county had lost power at the peak of the storm with and extra staff brought were brought in to repair any damage to the Northern Ireland Electricity network.
