Tyrone woman, 94, left in darkness for two days

When with all her strength Storm Isha tore across the open slopes of Baronscourt on Sunday evening, 94-year-old Rebecca Walker found herself plunged into total darkness.

The exposed houses and infrastructure that rest upon this rural stretch between Newtownstewart and Drumquin were no match for the gales that thundered across the hillside that night.

At about 7.30pm on Sunday evening, when the storm started to surge into overdrive, the electric in Ms Walker’s Baronscourt Road house went out.

When it eventually returned on Tuesday afternoon, the 94-year-old cried with relief.

Along with her son Cyril, Mrs Walker told the UH about the fear that seized her during this distressing ordeal, and how glad she was to be back on the grid.

Ms Walker began, “It had been dark outside for a few hours when all of a sudden the lights went out and the heating went off.

“I was alone in the house at the time, so I picked up the phone and rang Cyril.”

Answering his mobile to the trembling voice of his mother, Cyril jumped to his feet, left his partner’s house in Brookborough, County Fermanagh, and started making his way to Baronscourt.

With the gusts tearing limbs from some trees and ripping others up at the roots, Cyril’s journey was fraught with blocked roads, dangerous surprises and lengthy diversions.

“I knew she was sitting afraid in the dark, so I wanted to get down as fast as I could, but with all the re-routing, it must have taken me the guts of two hours to get to her.

“I was diverted first at Mountjoy, then Newtownstewart, then Ardstraw.”

However, swerving debris and avoiding fallen branches, Cyril eventually pulled up outside his mother’s pitch black home at about 9pm. “There was a torch inside the house but she was scared to get up to get it, in case she fell. I had one in the car so I grabbed that, and then I got hers when I got into the house. That was all the light we had for the next two days.”

Cyril got the torches turned on, the fire lit, and then went and got them some food.

“Thankfully, the back-up battery in her stairlift was still working, so I got her into her wheelchair, up the stairs and into her bed.

Reflecting on the few hours before Cyril arrived, Ms Walker said, “I had not been that scared in a long time. I was distraught. I just kept hoping that the lights would come back on, but it was Tuesday afternoon before they did.”

Cyril works for BT Openreach in Omagh, therefore understands the difficulties inherent in responding to such a widespread power crisis.

However, while he empathises with the NIE staff who were tasked with this Herculean undertaking, he was not without some constructive criticism.

“There need to backup generators in place that kick in when things like this happen. My mother was lucky because I could get to her within a few hours, but other older people might not have people who can get to them as easily.”