Millions of people in Ireland and northern parts of the U.K. heeded the advice of authorities to stay at home Friday in the face of hurricane-force winds that disabled power networks and brought widespread travel disruptions.

Ireland was hit with wind gusts of 183 kilometres an hour overnight, the strongest since the Second World War, as a winter storm spiralled in from the Atlantic before hitting Scotland.

Record high winds from Storm Eowyn battered Ireland and Northern Ireland on Friday, leaving almost one-third of Irish homes and businesses without power and forcing cancellation of hundreds of flights and the closure of schools and public transport.