As ESB Networks reiterates its warning about the dangers that persist from damage caused by Storm Éowyn, repair crews are working to reconnect tens of thousands of customers left without power for the sixth day.
North East Correspondent Marc O'Driscoll meets technicians who have been working long hours in difficult conditions to reconnect homes and businesses.
We are glad that we agreed to meet Storm Manager for Cavan and Monaghan with ESB Networks, Barry Comiskey, at the local church in Ballyjamesduff.
Given the remote area of forestland that we are headed to and the fact that there is virtually no mobile signal - owing to the masts no longer having the power to keep people in coverage - meaning no Google Maps, we almost certainly would have ended up lost.
About a 15-minute drive outside the east Co Cavan town, we arrive at our destination. Just one of the thousands of sites replicated across the country this week, where electricity lines and poles have been flattened as a result of Storm Éowyn.
Mr Comiskey tells me that they have received at least 1,000 calls from residents in Cavan and Monaghan with regard to power outages in the days since that Status Red wind warning last Friday.
This is the first step when it comes to the power restoration process - someone reporting a fault - before ESB Networks will then send out one of its specialist reconnaissance teams to see what needs to be done to fix the problem.
The information is then fed back to base so that a crew of network technicians know exactly what equipment and manpower is needed to bring people back online before they arrive on site.
The job at hand requires the six-strong crew on site to run new cable between a series of poles after what was there previously was snapped or taken down by falling tree branches.
Of course, the fact that this is essentially a valley with two steep embankments made up of mud and those aforementioned branches either side of a running stream does not make things any easier.
A crew of 20 would usually be given an entire day to carry out such a task under normal circumstances and affected residents would be given plenty of notice about a pre-planned power outage in their area. That is not the case today.
ESB Networks has said 3,000 electricity poles across the country must be replaced while 900km of new conductor cable must be laid over the coming days.
Seamus Crotty (watch above) from Gowna, Co Cavan, has been working with the ESB for 32 years and is one of the network technicians on-site at this area of forestland outside Ballyjamesduff.
He says that the scale of the damage that has been caused by Storm Éowyn on top of the inclement conditions experienced over last weekend has been unprecedented.
"I've never seen it as bad as this storm. I've been in the ESB for a long time and never before have we seen the amount of damage that we’ve seen from the storm last Thursday night into Friday morning. I’d say it’s the worst in living memory, I’ve heard people saying that and those couple of hours on Friday morning did a serious amount of damage.
"We’re trying to replace all the damaged conductor [cable] that’s there and salvage what we can from what’s left there at the minute. You can see there’s a pole up on the top of the hill there and that needs to be replaced. So, we need to get a digger crew in here. There should be a pole here somewhere that we can’t even see, like it’s gone. It was just totally wiped out with the storm," he added.
"There’s a couple of poles we put in here and then there’s a lot of work to run and get this line up and the challenge is, I suppose, to get it done in daylight because when it gets dark, it gets into a serious problem," he said.
Almost all network technicians across the country have been working long days from 7am until 10pm since last Friday, away from their own families who themselves may be without power and water because of the storm.
Mr Crotty also tells me that the work is made even more difficult when they are in such a terrain.
"You can see the conditions here today, we are trying to restore supply back through the middle of a forest. We can’t get any trucks or any quads or any machinery in here at all so it’s only a case of getting a digger in and the lads are all working on foot there.
"Conditions are very challenging. As you can see, there’s a stream going across here, which is making life very difficult for us but I suppose, bit by bit, we get there, but it takes a lot of time to complete jobs like this," he said.
There is obviously understandable anger and frustration amongst people who are now facing a sixth day of no electricity and possibly even no water as well.
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Yesterday, we heard from members of the business community who have been forced to throw out previously purchased perishable goods as refrigerators are not working and their finances will take a hit as a result.
Carers also find themselves in particularly difficult situations while older and more vulnerable members of the community may feel isolated and cut off from society.
ESB Networks are asking people still experiencing outages to bear with them.
Unfortunately, daily decreases in the number without power will now begin to slow. Even though crews will be fixing faults at the same pace, each fixed fault will now bring fewer premises back online as ESB Networks reach more remote areas.
Yesterday also brought about a boost for the crews here who have been working around-the-clock as their ESB counterparts from Austria and Finland arrived to help the cause.
Technicians from other countries will continue to land here over the coming days as this now multinational restoration operation, the likes of which has never been seen before, is almost certain to enter a second week.
