Midlands 103 audiences updated during Storm Eowyn

Midlands 103, our radio station in Ireland, kept local people updated as its region was hit by severe winds during Storm Eowyn.

Through a mix of radio updates, website news and social media posts, Midlands 103 colleagues provided information on the impact of Friday’s storm, which brought record wind speeds recorded by Irish weather service Met Éireann as peaking at 183km/h (114mph) in County Galway.

Serving the counties of Laois, Offaly and Westmeath, Midlands 103 is a full-service local station offering speech and music programming across a broad schedule.

As the trusted local news source, the team updated listeners and web audiences on the damage to the local area, which had been given severe wind warnings in the build-up to the storm.

Around 30,000 customers lost power in the midlands, with Athlone the worst affected town, with over 11,000 homes and businesses impacted by faults. Nationally, 725,000 homes and businesses were without power.

Power cut

The storms affected communities in Offaly and Laois, who lost their water supply. People living in the Catholes, Acragar, the Rock, and Mountmellick faced continuous disruptions to their supply during the storm.

Midlands 103 gave updates after an Offaly leisure centre lost its roof to the storm. The roof over the pool in the Auro Leisure Centre in Tullamore blew off. Duty manager Robin Maher told Midlands 103’s David Hollywood staff had no idea where the roof had gone.

With hundreds of trees blown over in the winds, Midlands 103 kept drivers updated on the widespread road closures. Local people also lost mobile phone signal.

As well as sharing eyewitness and listener updates, the station team provided official information from local authorities, including Director of Services with Laois County Council Simon Walton, Offaly Sinn Fein Councillor Claire Murray, Jean Ryan, Director of Services Transportation, Westmeath County Council and Jennifer Gilna from the National Transport Authority.

Over the weekend and into the following week, Midlands 103 has continued to provide updates on the situation, which has left 10,000 people in the midlands still without power by Monday morning.

The station reported on crews being drafted in from the UK to help restore power to the almost quarter of a million homes nationally and businesses still without electricity. News colleagues shared information on the offers from community centres to help people keep warm and cook.

Storm lessons

Appearing on the station on Monday to speak to Will Faulkner about the clean-up operation, Independent TD for Longford Westmeath Kevin Boxer Moran said there was “carnage” in the Athlone area following the storm.

Anglers offered stoves to people who were left without power for the weekend, he explained. Deputy Moran said he had to go by boat on the River Shannon to deliver food to one man who had been cut off since Thursday.

Appearing on Midlands 103, Seamus Boland, CEO of Irish Rural Link said lessons should be learnt from how Ireland dealt with the storm.

He says no one expected the loss of phone networks, which meant many households were isolated and it was upsetting for people, especially those who could not leave their homes because roads were blocked with fallen trees.

Sinéad Hubble, Head of Content Development, said: “With Storm Eowyn bringing record high winds to the midlands, our colleagues recognised the importance of keeping local people informed about the situation and the risks to public safety.

“Audiences trust us which is central to our ethos of Feel Good Radio which guides everything we do. When the storm caused such widespread damage, local people turned to us to give them the latest in a fast-changing picture.”

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