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NIE say 950 customers still without power on Monday NIE: 950 customers still without electricity on Monday
(about 2 hours later)
Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) said 950 customers are still without power on Monday. 950 homes and businesses are still without electricity in Northern Ireland.
NIE said it had worked to restore power to more than 137,000 customers over the course of the weekend. NIE said it had worked to restore power to more than 137,000 customers over the weekend. Thousands lost their supply due to strong winds and heavy snow.
Thousands lost their supply on Friday due to severe weather and heavy snow across northern and eastern areas. Most of those still affected are in rural areas in eastern and northern counties.
NIE said most of those still affected were in higher areas in the east of Northern Ireland. Repair teams are having difficulty reaching some parts due to "impassable roads".
The company said it would endeavour to restore power to the majority of customers on Sunday evening. "We're working with Roads Service to get roads cleared but in some areas we are going to have to helicopter crews and materials in," said NIE spokeswoman Julia Carson.
However, its emergency repair teams were still having difficulty reaching some parts of the network due to "impassable roads". "At the moment we've got small pockets of customers, really on high ground in and around, Stoneyford, Dundrod, Mallusk, areas of Ballycastle, Newcastle, and other areas of County Down as well.
The PSNI said on Sunday that people were facing snow drifts of 12 to 18ft in some isolated areas. "We have over 140 extra lines staff from the Republic of Ireland and Scotland and they've been helping our emergency crews on the ground. There are just some areas where we cannot physically get to the faults."
NIE spokeswoman Sara McClintock said repair crews were working closely with Roads Service to help clear the affected routes. Small groups of customers are without supply in the following areas:
However, the company said that due to access problems, it expected that the following areas would still be off supply on Monday: Ms Carson said the weather conditions on Friday were "exceptional".
Ms McClintock said, "We are encouraging any customer who hasn't contacted us recently to give us a call back. We have call handlers waiting to take your call. "Our key focus is to restore power," she said.
"Our teams are continuing to work on the ground and we have a clearer picture on restoration times." "We have been using a helicopter to patrol remote areas and have commissioned an additional helicopter to deliver NIE emergency crews, engineers and equipment into these areas on Monday by air.
"Our incident management centre and local incident centres in affected areas are open and will remain operational until all customers are back on supply."
NIE said any customers still without power should contact them.
NIE's customer help line number is 08457 643643.NIE's customer help line number is 08457 643643.
Meanwhile Belfast Trust has cancelled all non-urgent operations planned for Monday.
The trust apologised but said the bad weather was placing extra pressures on its hospital resources.
It said the cancelled operations would be rebooked at the earliest opportunity.