LONDON, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Ferries were canceled and planes diverted Thursday as high winds hit the west coast of Ireland.
Met Eireann issued a red alert for the west coast and a severe weather warning for the rest of Ireland.
Power companies were still trying to cope with a backlog of outages from previous storms, the Irish Times reported. The wind Thursday brought more lines down, officials said.
On Inis Mor, in the Aran Islands off the west coast, the 840 or so residents got their lights back on in time for Christmas. A Coast Guard helicopter carried a repair crew to the island for the job.
Some planes scheduled to land in Ireland were diverted to England. Others scheduled to land at Shannon in the west touched down at Dublin Airport, while late in the day a couple of flights were diverted from Dublin to Shannon.
Scotland got a one-day break from bad weather, The Scotsman reported. But forecasters predicted gale-force rains Friday and said residents could expect to wake up to heavy rain as the new storm moved east.
England also got a short respite from the bad weather. Wind and flood alerts were issued for Friday, the Guardian said.
Utilities scrambled Thursday to restore power to thousands of homes and businesses before the next round of rough weather.
