Six days without power has been absolutely awful - mother of five

A County Antrim mother-of-five who remains without power for a sixth day after Storm Éowyn has said it has been "absolutely awful".

Nicola Graham, from Ballymena, and her children aged between eight months and 12-years-old have been "surviving with headlamps and candles" since a tree fell on their power line on Friday.

It comes as a fence surrounding a Stewartstown preschool in County Tyrone, became electrified after live powerlines fell on it during the storm.

Homes have been damaged and about 23,500 properties in Northern Ireland remain without power for a sixth day after high winds battered the UK and Ireland last week.

Specialist engineers have arrived from across the UK to help restore power, but Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) has warned it could be Monday, 3 February, before all properties are reconnected.

Ms Graham told BBC's Good Morning Ulster she has to boil a saucepan of water over her wood-burning stove to feed her eight-month-old a bottle.

The rest of the family are relying on takeaway meals that cost £40 a night and "using the washing machine at shops", she said.

"We are surviving with headlamps and candles," she said, adding that they have to recharge lamps and phones at school, work and in the car.

"From 17:30 to bedtime, it's awful. We are all sitting in one room trying to keep heat and trying to entertain children.

"You can't draw in the dark and play with your toys in the dark."

Ms Graham said that because she is on the "priority list" due to her child having additional needs, NIE send her an hourly message saying the repair team is "on their way" and power will be restored by Saturday, 1 February.

"I am supposed to have a check-in phone call from NIE everyday and I didn't have one yesterday to see how we were coping," she added.

"They offered me a community centre in Roe Valley near Limavady, that's it.

"It's going to be really tough. Our saving grace is that we're out at work."

She said she would like "a bit of hope that they are doing something and we are not left in limbo".

"The best outcome is that I would see an NIE van beyond my lane and having my wires up to connect the power supply back to my home."

On Tuesday, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons pledged £1m to support communities and individuals affected by the storm.

"Storm Eowyn has caused devastation, and my primary concern is the safety and well-being of all those affected, particularly children, the elderly and people with vulnerabilities," Mr Lyons said.

Lyons said Stormont departments would do everything possible to help support those who have found themselves homeless and for those needing assistance.

Earlier in the week, the first minister and deputy first ministers called on NIE to "step up" and provide a "goodwill payment" to those still without power.

Ronan McKeown, from NIE, has said that conversations on compensation payments would continue between NIE, Stormont ministers, the Department for the Economy and Utility Regulator.

Ms Graham said she believes NIE should be looking at goodwill payments now.

"Every bit of food in the fridge is ruined and when the electric comes back on we will have to replace it."

Sarah Craig lives on the outskirts of Stewartstown in County Tyrone.

She and her four-year-old daughter are into day six of not having any power at their home.

"The storm started on Friday morning and the electric went off, six days later, here we are, still with no electric."

Speaking to BBC News NI she added: "In the bedrooms at night you can see your breath, my daughter's room is freezing, she's had to come and sleep with us at some stages it's been that cold."

Sarah lives opposite a preschool and earlier this week noticed an extremely dangerous situation unfolding.

She said: "I was actually taking my bin down and happened to glance across the road and noticed that the chain holding the padlock to the school gates was glowing."

While Sarah investigated further she noticed the whole fence was live due to power lines that had fallen onto it during the storm, she said she "contacted local councillors and NIE and NIE came out around 7pm".

"NIE confirmed that the whole fence was live and the fire brigade had to come out, because there was smoke coming out of the gate, so obviously the live fence had started to smoulder the hedge, but the fire brigade were very quick to come out and NIE said they turned off the power connected to it," she explained.

Ruadhrai O'Kane, who is part of the incident team for NIE Networks, told Good Morning Ulster that Monday, 3 February, is the most "realistic" date for the worst-affected customers to have their power restored.

"We are trying to be as realistic as we can to try to give people time to make any arrangements they can," said Mr O'Kane.

"We are doing all that we can to restore power to people as quickly as we can. We have meter readers going out to do checks with vulnerable customers and community assistant centres."

He said that NIE has been getting support from other companies across Great Britain, while engineers have even arrived from Finland.

"We probably have 1,400 people working tirelessly and flat out to restore electricity supply as quickly as we can... it's our primary focus at the minute."

On the question of goodwill payments, he said, NIE are "engaging with multiple agencies to try and provide the support that we can".

In the Republic of Ireland, more than 142,000 properties remain without supply, according to ESB Networks - down from a peak of about 768,000 on Friday morning.

The storm had also affected water supplies in some parts of Northern Ireland.

NI Water now say that all their customers should have their water supply as normal.

The aftermath of the storm has also affected schools, with some in Northern Ireland still closed on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the National Trust has said the storm "wreaked havoc" on its estates and gardens in Northern Ireland.

It estimates that 10,000 trees in Mount Stewart, County Down, were "flattened" by hurricane force winds

Winds of up to 90mph left Rowallane Garden in Saintfield "almost unrecognisable" with irreplaceable specimen trees permanently lost, some more than 250 years old, as well as rare and exotic species and rhododendrons planted by the estate's former owner, Hugh Armytage Moor, in the 1870s.

Some of the trust's properties remain closed as the damage is assessed and clean-up work gets under way.

NIE has said there are 11 Community Assistance Centres and more than 60 drop-in centres open until 19:00 GMT to help those without power.

Facilities offered range from showers, food, hot drinks, and work-from-home hubs. NIE Networks reps are available for support.

To report faults or emergencies you should contact:

Northern Ireland Housing Executive: 03448 920 901

Openreach Damages to Network: 08000 23 20 23 (Individual faults must be logged with Communications Providers)

Gas networks: 0800 002001

NI Water: 03457 44 00 88 or visit niwater.com, external

Flooding Incident Line: 0300 2000 100

NIE Networks: 03457 643 643 or visit nienetworks.co.uk