DUBLIN, March 3 (Xinhua) -- An old man died in a road accident in Ireland on Saturday, making him the first person killed in a powerful snowstorm that has hit the country for the fourth consecutive day.
According to local media reports, the man in his 80s was killed when his car smashed into a wall by the roadside in the country's midwest county of Roscommon on Saturday afternoon.
The victim was alone in the ill-fated car, said police. No other details about the accident were reported.
Prior to this, a 19-year-old man in the country's southern county of Cork was critically injured by the neck when he fell down from a wall on which he was standing for taking photos of the snow.
These are the only two snowstorm-related casualties reported in the country over the last four days.
Apart from these, two looting cases were reported in the country's capital Dublin on Friday evening when two separate groups of people broke into two stores in the western part of the city apparently for food at first as most of the stores remained closed during the snowstorm.
Nine people involved in the cases have been arrested and were presented to the local criminal courts with charges of burglary and looting on Friday.
IMPROVED WEATHER
Local meteorological department has downgraded the warning from the highest red status to the second-tier orange level for the hardest-hit east and south regions of the country in the snowstorm since Saturday morning as the heavy showers of the snow have stopped and the gusty wind has obviously died down in these areas.
However, both meteorological and transport authorities warned that melting snow on the roads could make travelling on them even more dangerous. They advised people to avoid unnecessary journeys unless absolutely needed.
Starting late on Saturday morning, most of the airports in the country have resumed their operations while public transport services, including buses, trams and trains, have started limited services in Dublin and other parts of the country.
Improved weather has also helped local electricity suppliers in restoration of power for the affected customers. By 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, power has been restored to 138,500 homes, farms and businesses which have suffered from power cuts since the wee hours of Friday, said Electricity Supply Board (ESB), the country's largest power company.
So far only about 12,000 customers are still out of power, said ESB, adding that 90 percent of them are in the southern county of Wexford.
Water supply restoration work is also under way, said local authorities, adding that an estimated 10,000 customers are still facing the water supply problems across the country.
Local telecommunications company Eir said that a number of its customers have been affected during the snowstorm and an estimated 10,000 customers were without telephone, broadband and mobile services on Friday due to the damages to its network infrastructure. Out of the affected customers, 7,000 were from the country's southwestern county of Limerick, it said.
No official figures have been announced for the losses of the country in the snowstorm yet. Local watchers believe that the snowstorm which has never been seen in the country over the last 36 years will definitely have a negative impact on the Irish economy in March.
