Council Helpline hears harrowing stories as local residents continue to struggle with storm outages

Harrowing stories are emerging in County Sligo from people who are continuing to be impacted by outages.  The stories are emerging as emergency teams are again working across the North West to renew power and water supplies around the region this morning.  As of last night, nationwide there were 142 thousand customers still without power and around 31 thousand had no water.  Both the ESB and Uisce Éireann are thanking customers for their continued patience.  Meanwhile the government says urgent humanitarian aid is available for people in need of food and vital supplies, along with supports for people who've suffered structural damage to their homes as a result of Friday's storm.  Thousands across Sligo and Leitrim are still without power and water, almost one week on from Storm Eowyn. A helpline, set up by Sligo County Council, has had a huge influx of calls. Edel Mhic Amhlaidh, Communications Officer with Sligo County Council says some of the calls the Council has received so far have really shed a light on how difficult it still is for many people: