Tough nine days with no power

“Those nine days, I will not lie, were hard. It didn’t help that my husband fell, broke his foot and had to have surgery, so ended up in a boot with crutches. Having no power completely changed our way of living.”

That is how Anne Corroon of Weldon’s Cross, Grange South, Mullingar describes the days following Storm Éowyn: “Depending on other people for help made us realise how important family and friends are,” she said. “We so appreciate so many people offering their homes to shower and charge our phones or just have a cuppa and a chat.

“Nine days from start to finish felt like a month. Our frustration came from the fact we had houses all lit up around us and we were struggling with my husband’s (Larry) accident in darkness.

"When the ESB arrived at our door on Saturday (February 1), we were so relieved to see them.

“I’m sure many people would agree that it was the not knowing and lack of communication did not help. Giving people false hope by sending out false dates to get power back did not help. In fact that made it more stressful.

“It would have been better if we hadn’t looked for updates on outages and when we would have the power back.

“Thank God we have our power back now and we can concentrate on getting Larry back to good physical health again.

“We understand that the ESB crews had a massive job to do: the lesson here is – at least with us – is to be better prepared for these outages.

“As far as we can see there are going to be more storms and therefore more outages.”

Ann teaches painting and acrylics, mosaic craft classes and has been running children’s art camps for several years.