Power distributors were rushing this morning to re-establish connections to an estimated one hundred thousand homes and businesses cut off by 90 mph winds delivered by Storm Isha.
DNOs said they had drafted in hundreds of engineers and extra call agents, standing by to despatch crews for urgent responses. The Met Office had announced a yellow national weather warning due to last into Monday.
UK Power Networks said it had restored power to most properties which had lost electricity in eastern and south eastern England, but about 45,000 homes in Northern Ireland remained without power.
Scotland and England’s north west were also badly hit. Gusts of over 90 miles per hour led to the cancellation of all train services from north of the border and flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow airports were cancelled.
Trains in some parts of southern England were affected including services between London to Gatwick Airport.
At Electricity North West, customer director Steph Trubshaw said: “We’re constantly monitoring the weather and several forecasts are showing wind speeds of 70mph across the region for a prolonged period of time.
“We’re anticipating the conditions will make it unsafe for teams to climb meaning restorations for some customers will be delayed.
Remote technology would be used where possible to restore power, said Trubshaw, but electricity could remain off in some locations into Monday.
“Should that be the case, we’ll ensure regular updates are provided to those customers that are impacted. We’ll have hundreds of staff responding to ensure supplies are restored.”
The regional DNO said it invests millions each year cutting back trees from power lines but strong winds can still cause damage and blow other debris into the network which can cause power cuts.
