Drone Storm Damage Assessment in Ireland
When severe weather strikes, the priority is to assess damage safely and quickly. Drone Services Ireland provides rapid aerial assessment of storm damage across buildings, power lines, solar farms, forestry, and infrastructure, deploying within 24 hours of conditions being safe to fly.
Operating commercially since 2016, we have direct experience of post-storm deployment across every major weather event to affect Ireland in the past decade, including the aftermath of Storm Éowyn in January 2025, the most powerful storm to hit Ireland since 1961. Our EASA-specific Category authorisation and IAA certification allow us to operate in restricted and complex environments that other operators cannot.
Why Drones Are Critical After a Storm
Traditional post-storm inspection methods are slow, expensive, and dangerous. Scaffolding cannot be erected on structurally compromised buildings. Ground crews cannot safely approach downed power lines or unstable forestry. Flooded terrain may be impassable for weeks.
Drones eliminate these constraints. A single mobilisation captures high-resolution imagery, thermal data, and survey-grade measurements from a safe distance. The data is available for review within hours, not weeks, giving property owners, insurers, utility companies, and local authorities the information they need to prioritise response and allocate resources.
Drone Services Ireland operates the DJI Matrice 300 RTK platform with interchangeable payloads, allowing us to switch between photogrammetry, LiDAR, and thermal imaging sensors depending on the assessment required. This means one mobilisation can address multiple assessment needs simultaneously.
Building and Roof Damage Assessment
Storm damage to roofs is one of the most common and most dangerous categories of post-storm assessment. Missing slates, lifted flashing, displaced ridge tiles, structural deformation, and water ingress can all be identified from drone imagery without anyone needing to climb onto an unstable structure.
Drone Services Ireland provides detailed roof inspection reports for residential, commercial, and industrial properties. Our inspections capture high-resolution photography from every angle, including close-up detail of specific damage areas, chimney stacks, guttering, and lead work. Where moisture ingress is suspected, our thermal imaging sensor identifies areas of heat loss and trapped moisture that are invisible to the naked eye.
For insurance claims, our reports provide date-stamped, geotagged photographic evidence documenting the property’s condition immediately after the storm event. This evidence is accepted by all major Irish and UK insurers and significantly accelerates the claims process by removing the need for scaffolding, cherry pickers, or manual roof access.
After Storm Éowyn, we deployed to multiple properties across Ireland where conventional access was impossible due to structural instability. In several cases, our drone assessment was the only safe way to determine whether buildings were safe to re-enter.
Power Line and Electricity Network Inspection
Ireland’s electricity distribution network spans over 150,000 km of overhead power lines, much of it running through or adjacent to forestry. When storms bring down trees across power lines, identifying the location and extent of damage is the first step toward restoring the supply. Ground-based inspection of damaged high-voltage infrastructure is slow and carries significant safety risks.
Drone Services Ireland has direct experience of post-storm power line assessment, including corridor surveys of distribution and transmission lines where fallen trees and debris have damaged poles, conductors, and associated infrastructure. Our LiDAR sensor can penetrate through the remaining canopy to identify damage beneath the tree line, while photogrammetry captures the visible condition of poles, cross-arms, insulators, and conductor sag.
Storm Éowyn caused unprecedented damage to the ESB network in January 2025, leaving 750,000 premises without power in the Republic alone. Over 3,000 poles required replacement, and 900 km of cabling had to be relaid. Drones proved essential for rapid assessment of the most inaccessible damage sites, particularly in the heavily forested corridors of the west and northwest, where ground access was blocked by windthrow.
Our power line inspection capability extends to identifying vegetation encroachment that increases future storm vulnerability. By combining LiDAR data with photogrammetry, we produce classified point clouds that measure the clearance distance between conductors and surrounding vegetation, allowing network operators to prioritise corridor management before the next storm season.
Solar Farm Damage Assessment
Solar farms are particularly vulnerable to storm damage. High winds displace panels from mounting frames, debris impacts can crack or shatter panel surfaces, and flooding can undermine foundations and cable routing. The scale of a typical solar installation, often hundreds of acres, makes ground-based inspection after a storm event impractical and time-consuming.
Drone Services Ireland combines aerial photogrammetry with thermal imaging to deliver comprehensive post-storm assessments of solar farms. High-resolution photography reveals visible damage to panels, frames, cabling, and boundary fencing throughout the installation. Thermal imaging then reveals electrical faults, hot spots, and underperforming cells that may not be visible to the eye but indicate internal damage from impact or water ingress.
We have surveyed solar farm sites across Ireland, including a 300-acre installation where we delivered a full topographical survey in 10 days and a 15 km power line corridor adjacent to a proposed solar development. This experience means we understand the layout, infrastructure, and access constraints of solar farm sites and can deploy an effective assessment rapidly after a storm event.
Forestry Damage Assessment
Storm Éowyn devastated Irish forestry on an unprecedented scale. Over 26,000 hectares of forest were damaged, and an estimated 50 million trees were lost or flattened, primarily Sitka spruce and other coniferous plantations in the western counties of Galway, Roscommon, Leitrim, Cavan, Longford, and Sligo. The cost of the cleanup, still ongoing into 2027, is estimated at over €60 million. The value of the windblown timber alone exceeds €500 million.
Drone Services Ireland was deployed to assess forestry damage in the aftermath of Éowyn, providing aerial data that Coillte and private forestry owners needed to plan salvage operations, assess access routes, and quantify the extent of windthrow across individual plantations.
Our LiDAR capability is particularly valuable for forestry assessment. Where conventional aerial photography shows a canopy (or the absence of one), LiDAR penetrates through remaining standing timber to map the terrain beneath, identify access routes through windblown areas, measure the volume of fallen timber, and detect where trees have fallen across roads, rivers, and power line corridors.
For forestry owners, this data feeds directly into salvage harvest planning. The speed of timber recovery is critical because windblown trees that have snapped at the trunk begin to decay rapidly, reducing their commercial value. Our drone surveys provide the spatial data needed to prioritise extraction, plan temporary access roads, and coordinate the deployment of machinery across damaged plantations.
Other Storm Damage Applications
Beyond the core areas above, drones are increasingly deployed across Ireland and the UK for a range of post-storm assessment tasks. Drone Services Ireland has the equipment, certifications, and operational experience to support all of the following:
Flood mapping and coastal erosion: After storm surges and heavy rainfall, drones capture the extent of flooding and coastal retreat with centimetre-level accuracy. This data supports insurance claims, informs local authority response, and provides baseline measurements for environmental monitoring programmes. Storm Éowyn produced a 2.6 m storm surge in Galway Bay, and climate projections indicate these events will become more frequent.
Road and bridge infrastructure: Collapsed embankments, undermined bridge abutments, debris blockages, and road surface damage can all be assessed from drone imagery. Our photogrammetry and 3D modelling capability produces survey-grade measurements of structural deformation that engineers can use to assess safety and plan repairs.
Wind turbine damage: High winds can cause blade damage, lightning strikes, and nacelle displacement. Drone Services Ireland provides wind turbine inspection services that capture close-up imagery of blade surfaces, leading edges, and lightning-receptor systems without the need for rope-access teams or blade-mounted platforms.
Telecommunications infrastructure: Storm damage to telecommunications masts and towers can disrupt mobile and broadband coverage across wide areas. Drone inspection identifies antenna displacement, structural deformation, and cable damage at height without requiring climbers to access potentially compromised structures.
Construction site damage: Exposed structures, temporary works, and partially completed buildings are vulnerable to storm damage. Construction monitoring surveys before and after storm events provide documented evidence of any changes, supporting insurance claims and informing remediation planning.
Stockpile displacement: Quarries, ports, and material storage yards can experience significant stockpile volume displacement during high winds and flooding. Drone volumetric surveys after storm events quantify material loss or contamination relative to pre-storm baseline measurements.
Equipment and Fast Deployment Capability
Drone Services Ireland maintains equipment ready for rapid deployment across Ireland. Our primary platform, the DJI Matrice 300 RTK, is rated IP45 for weather resistance and can operate in wind speeds up to 33 km/h (Force 5), enabling deployment as soon as conditions are safe after a storm passes.
Our interchangeable payload system means we arrive on site with the right sensor for the job:
DJI Zenmuse P1 (45 MP full-frame photogrammetry sensor) for high-resolution visual inspection and survey-grade mapping.
DJI Zenmuse L2 (LiDAR: 240,000 pts/sec single return, 1.2M pts/sec multi-return, 5 returns per pulse, 5 cm horizontal / 4 cm vertical accuracy at 150 m) for terrain mapping through vegetation and canopy, forestry volume assessment, and power line corridor measurement.
DJI Zenmuse H20T (thermal and visual) for identifying moisture ingress, electrical faults, heat loss, and structural anomalies not visible in standard photography.
All equipment is maintained flight-ready. We carry spare batteries, RTK base stations, and ground control point targets as standard, allowing immediate deployment without supply chain delays. Our EASA Specific Category authorisation covers operations in congested areas, near infrastructure, and over active sites, meaning we can deploy to storm-damaged locations that would require additional regulatory approval for other operators.
Drone Services Ireland is based in County Meath, with operational reach across the full island of Ireland. We have previously deployed to sites from Cork to Donegal within 24 hours of instruction.
How It Works: From Storm to Report
- Instruction and assessment: You contact Drone Services Ireland by phone or email with the location, the nature of the damage, and the assessment requirements. We confirm availability, agree scope, and schedule deployment.
- Rapid deployment: We mobilise to the site as soon as weather conditions allow safe flight operations, typically within 24 hours. For multi-site assessments (for example, a portfolio of insured properties or a network of power line corridors), we plan efficient routing to cover the most ground in the least time.
- On-site data capture: Depending on the assessment type, we capture high-resolution photography, thermal imagery, LiDAR point clouds, or a combination of these. A typical single-property roof inspection takes 20 to 30 minutes on site. Larger assessments, such as power line corridors or forestry blocks, may take one to two days.
- Processing and reporting: Data is processed and delivered in the format your team requires. This may include annotated photographic reports for insurance claims, orthomosaics for spatial assessment, classified LiDAR point clouds for engineering analysis, or thermal maps identifying moisture and electrical faults.
- Delivery: Reports are typically delivered within 48 hours of the site visit. For urgent insurance or safety assessments, same-day preliminary reports can be provided.
Frequently Asked Questions
How quickly can you deploy after a storm?
Drone Services Ireland can typically deploy within 24 hours of conditions being safe to fly. We monitor weather forecasts during storm events and begin scheduling assessments before the storm has fully passed, allowing us to be on site as early as possible.
Can drones fly in high winds after a storm?
The DJI Matrice 300 RTK is rated for operation in winds up to 33 km/h (approximately Force 5). We do not fly in unsafe conditions, but this threshold is well below the sustained wind speeds of most named storms, meaning we can typically operate within hours of a red weather warning being lifted.
Are drone inspection reports accepted by insurers?
Yes. Our reports provide date-stamped, geotagged, high-resolution photographic and thermal evidence that is accepted by all major Irish and UK insurers. Drone inspection evidence is increasingly preferred by loss adjusters because it provides comprehensive, objective documentation without the cost and delays associated with scaffolding or cherry picker access.
What areas of Ireland do you cover for storm damage assessment?
Drone Services Ireland covers the full island of Ireland from our base in County Meath. We have previously deployed for storm damage assessments from Cork to Donegal and can reach most locations within a few hours of instruction.
Can you assess multiple properties or sites in a single deployment?
Yes. For insurers, property management companies, or utility operators with multiple affected sites, we plan efficient multi-site deployment routes. This is particularly cost-effective for portfolio assessments after a widespread storm event.
What deliverables do you provide for a storm damage assessment?
Deliverables are tailored to the assessment type. Options include annotated photographic reports (PDF), high-resolution orthophotos, thermal imaging reports, classified LiDAR point clouds (LAS format), 3D models, volumetric calculations, and AutoCAD DWG files. We discuss requirements at the instruction stage and deliver in the format your team needs.
How does drone forestry assessment help after a storm?
Drone LiDAR surveys map the terrain beneath fallen and standing timber, identify access routes, measure windthrow volumes, and detect where trees have fallen across roads, rivers, and power line corridors. This data is critical for planning salvage harvest operations and prioritising timber extraction before decay reduces commercial value.
Do you have experience with Storm Éowyn damage assessment?
Yes. Drone Services Ireland deployed to multiple sites in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn in January 2025, including building inspections, forestry damage assessment, and power line corridor surveys. Éowyn was the most powerful storm to hit Ireland since 1961, with wind gusts of 183 km/h, and the experience reinforced the critical role of drone technology in post-storm response.
Request a Storm Damage Assessment
If your property, infrastructure, or land has been affected by storm damage, contact Drone Services Ireland for a rapid aerial assessment. We provide same-day quotations and can typically deploy within 24 hours.
Call 087 205 2331 or use our contact form to discuss your requirements.