POWER AND WATER RESTORED TO COUNTY AREAS

Date Published: 04-Jan-2012

Power and water has been restored to most areas of Galway following yesterday's hurricane weather.

Storm force winds and lashing rain hit the West coast on Monday night resulting in debris across the county's roads.

Meanwhile, Eircom is continuing to fix several thousand faults reported on its phone network across the country.

A large tree hit a water main at Creagh junction in Ballinasloe causing water disruption for most of the day yesterday.

500 ESB customers in Ballinasloe and Derrybrien were left without power yesterday as a result of the faults because of the storm.

The storm also claimed a rare tree, which was planted by the man who created Kylemore Abbey in Connemara more than a century ago.

According to the Irish Times, the weather felled an exotic pine, which was almost 20 metres in height.

The tree was planted by Mitchell Henry around 1870 and built Kylemore Abbey as a fairytale home for his wife between 1867 and 1871.