Storm Eowyn a week on: Over 4,000 medical appointments and surgeries cancelled due to extreme weather - while some roads remain blocked

In addition, dozens of roads remain blocked after Storm Eowyn engulfed the Province.

Meanwhile the number of homes and businesses without electricity had this afternoon dwindled to about 16,000.

At the peak after the storm, about 283,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland – or roughly 31% of all NI Electricity's customers – were left without power.

The figure of 16,000 equates to about 1.8% - however, some of those remaining 16,000 properties may not see their power restored until Monday, NI Electricity (NIE) has said.

That contrasts with Scotland, where all properties had been reconnected as of Thursday.

In terms of transport, the Department for Infrastructure's TrafficWatchNI service issued an update this afternoon to say it had encountered "3,327 incidents and 3,071 obstructions on roads" from the day of the storm until today.

That included "44 ongoing road closures," with "36 roads blocked" due to fallen trees lying on NIE infrastructure, with "ther roads are blocked due to BT equipment, unsafe buildings, etc".

On the subject of health, the Department of Health has now provided the News Letter with figures quantifying the extent of disruption caused to patients by the storm.

It said: "In total, 4,050 outpatient and elective surgery appointments were postponed because of the Storm Eowyn red weather alert and the advice not to travel.

"The vast majority of these were outpatient appointments.

"Trusts have been making every effort to ensure that all postponed appointments on this date were rescheduled as early as possible with many patients already rebooked.

"Priority is being given to patients with the most serious conditions, including red flag cancer patients and time-critical surgery was maintained on Friday.

"Time-critical treatments, including renal dialysis and chemo/radiotherapy were either moved to Thursday evening prior to the storm, or Friday afternoon and the weekend, with staff working additional shifts to accommodate patients.

"Some surgical lists were delivered on Friday, including fracture surgery."