Storm Isha: Man dies in crash in Limavady involving fallen tree and two vans

The crash happened in Limavady, Co Londonderry on Sunday as high winds battered the province.

The man who died was driving a van that hit the fallen tree and another van on the Broad Road at around 9.45pm. The male driver of the second vehicle was taken to hospital for treatment.

Causeway Coast and Glens Borough councillor Ashleen Schenning said the community was in shock after the crash in Limavady.

“This has devastated the town,” said the SDLP representative. “To wake up to this news this morning – it has just left the town in shock and devastation.”

Storm Isha caused significant travel disruption and left thousands of homes without power.

As the clean-up began on Monday and repairs were made to power lines, further weather alerts were issued ahead of Storm Jocelyn’s arrival on Tuesday, which forecasters warned could cause further damage to already weakened structures.

Northern Ireland Electricity Networks said the impact was “severe and widespread”.

On Monday afternoon 17,000 customers were still without power, with 53,000 hit by outages at the height of the storm.

Authorities across the island reported fallen trees on roads and urged people not to try to move them as there may be electricity lines tangled within.

A number of trees made famous by the TV series Game Of Thrones were damaged and felled by the storm in Co Antrim.

Work was carried out on Monday to clear up at the Dark Hedges site.

The tunnel of trees became famous when it was featured in the HBO fantasy series and now attracts significant numbers of tourists from around the world.

In Northern Ireland, a yellow wind warning remained in place for all counties until noon on Monday.

A woman from Co Down said the storm had brought “the worst damage we’ve seen in this area” after a row of five trees were felled in front of her house.

Lisa Wilton, 47, posted a video of the fallen trees on X, formerly Twitter, showing the large trunks spanning the width of her driveway where they had uprooted and toppled over.

Ms Wilton, a user researcher in software design, told the PA news agency: “It’s the worst damage we’ve seen in this area. We’re just glad nobody was hurt and the house and car are OK.

“We can’t get the car out at all so we’ll be unable to go anywhere. Luckily I work from home but we’ll definitely need quite a lot of chainsaw work out there.”

She added: “We looked outside last night and spotted a gap in the tree line. I went with the torch to see if we had lost a tree but couldn’t believe the whole row of five trees had gone.”

On Tuesday, Storm Jocelyn will bring further risk of large waves along coastal areas, difficult travelling conditions, fallen trees, damage to power lines, and possible damage to already weakened structures.

In Northern Ireland, yellow wind warnings will be in place for the whole province, with strong winds expected from 4pm on Tuesday until noon on Wednesday.