An enormous bomb cyclone will slam Ireland late Thursday — bringing intense rain and wind on its way to delivering a separate blow to the United Kingdom. Damaging winds are expected across the British Isles.

The storm had knocked out power to more than half a million utility customers by early Friday as it moved across Ireland.

Ireland has been hit with record wind gusts of 114 miles (183 kilometers) an hour as a winter storm batters the country and northern parts of the U.K. Schools have been closed, trains halted and hundreds of flights canceled in the Republic of Ireland,