Cold fears for cystic fibrosis family among 65,000 still without electricity

“The cold can be really detrimental to your health,” he said.

“A cold could settle in your chest and give you a chest infection.”

The family spent Friday night in their own home, using blankets to stay warm, but have since moved to stay with family members.

“We are very lucky to have family here, because there are a lot of people who are going to be stuck at home and have to make do with what they have,” he said.

“You have to use a nebulizer every day. Failure to do so could affect your health; Mucus may build up in the chest.

“It wouldn’t just be a cold for him. It could be a nasty chest infection that could put you in the hospital.

“Hopefully one or two days without your nebulizer won’t have any effect on your health, but if it went on for a whole week it definitely would, and we can’t take that risk.”

Ms Watson said she had to give her son extra physiotherapy to counteract the cold.

He told BBC Information NI that he expects the NIE estimate of ten days to restore service to be a “worst case scenario”.

“I hope there is a good chance that it will come any day or any time possible,” he said.

ten schools in Northern Ireland will remain closed on Monday due to structural damage caused by Storm Éowyn, the Education Minister has said.

Paul Givan met with the Education Authority (EA) on Saturday and announced that some schools may have to move to remote learning.

EA’s maintenance helpline was operational throughout the weekend and received 154 reports of damage to school buildings.

Their severity ranged from missing shingles, downed trees and severe structural damage.

The CEO of NIE Networks said power has already been restored to 211,000 properties.

Derek Hynes said: “We believe it will be around 10 days before we complete the repairs necessary to return power to everyone.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said the UK government will offer “every possible support” to the damage repair effort.

“The magnitude of the damage caused by this storm is deeply concerning and I want to express my sincere gratitude to all those working hard to restore power, remove fallen trees and debris, and keep people safe,” he said.

To report failures or emergencies you must contact:

Northern Ireland Housing Executive: 03448 920 901

Open range: 08000 23 20 23

Gasoline networks: 0800 002001

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

Flood incident line: 0300 2000 100

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