Last week it was about battening down the hatches, this week it’s about counting the costs and assessing the damage.

Storm Darwin ripped its way through the Irish landscape last week. It has left thousands of acres of land submerged in water, some 5,000 homes and businesses still without power and hundreds of trees uprooted. Sheds on farms too felt the force of the storm and farmers are now sitting down to assess the full cost of repairs on their farms.

It is likely to be a number of weeks before the insurance companies have an acurate picture on claims figures. Forest owners face a significant hit. Coillte estimate between 4,000 and 8,000 hectares of trees are damaged while extensive areas of private forests have been blown.

Met Eireann is forecasting much calmer conditions over the weekend and into next week. Rainfall is expected to ease off almost entirely and will be replaced by some frosty conditions for Saturday and Sunday. There is likely to be a return to more frequent rain from early next week but should be considerably less than previously seen.

The Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture will meet today to discuss recent storm damage to farm land holdings near coasts and rivers.

Read more about damage done by Storm Darwin here.