MORE homes across Northern Ireland were hit by power cuts after winds reaching speeds in excess of 70mph lashed the Province on Wednesday night and into yesterday morning.
However, this latest black-out was not on the scale seen on Tuesday, when 35,000 homes were left without electricity after the worst storm of the winter to date.
An NIE spokesperson said engineers were once again on standby to deal with more damaged lines on Wednesday night as the high winds returned.
The PA weather centre revealed that gusts of 76mph were recorded at Orlock in Co Down, followed by a 68mph blast at Magilligan.
“Thankfully, the worst of the weather appears to be over, but it could become quite gusty again on Friday night,” said Lindsay Dovey, a forecaster with MeteoGroup UK.
She added: “We have seen a repeated cycle of weather fronts coming across Northern Ireland bringing wind and rain and looking ahead, we could see it remaining quite breezy as this unsettled weather continues.”
A number of roads were also blocked by fallen trees in counties Down and Fermanagh.
In England a woman and a 10-year-old boy were taken to hospital after a tree crashed onto their car as strong winds hit the UK again yesterday morning.
Emergency services were called to the incident outside Shenley Primary School in the Hertfordshire village of Shenley at about 7.50am.
The woman and the boy sustained minor injuries in the incident, an ambulance spokesman said.
The Met Office issued ‘yellow’ warnings of wind for Strathclyde, south west Scotland and Lothian Borders, Northern Ireland, Wales and north west England.
London Fire Brigade attended a string of wind-related incidents across the capital overnight, when gusts blew a wind turbine in Barking and scaffolding in Tavistock Square into “precarious positions”.