Restoration efforts continue throughout the North West as strong winds brought by Storm Éowyn persist.
Over 1700 properties in Penrith remain without power with thousands more in communities around Penrith with Electricity North West now saying it could be 6pm Sunday before everyone is reconnected.
Power has now been restored to more than 39,600 properties, despite incredibly strong wind speeds which have topped 75mph.
Trees, branches and debris have caused mass damage to the power network. Impact has been predominantly seen in north Cumbria with some areas in Lancashire, south Cumbria and Greater Manchester impacted.
Technology which Electricity North West has invested in continues to play a crucial role in restoring power and where possible, engineers are carrying out repairs on site and are working to restore power to 20,000 properties. More than 95 separate incidents have impacted the Electricity North West network today.
As Severe winds persist across the region in some instances, Electricity North West said it may not be safe for overhead lines teams to climb poles and repair damage until wind speeds decrease.
In what is a developing situation, Electricity North West has again adjusted its restoration times on some power cuts and the current latest restoration time is Sunday at 6pm. This follows on from extensive customer feedback who want to be made aware of the worst-case scenario.
“We are constantly tracking the weather and whilst the severe winds might have passed, we’re still expecting extremely strong gusts into the evening,” said Electricity North West’s incident manager Steph Trubshaw.
“We want to be honest with customers and following on from extensive feedback, which we collate after every weather event, we’ve made the decision to set restoration times for Sunday at 6pm.
“We’ll update these when we get more updates from site, and I want to stress that the times are a worst-case scenario in an emerging situation.”
Electricity North West’s contact centre has now handled 4,500 inbound calls whilst colleagues have proactively reached out to more than 70,000 customers with key updates.
Welfare support is also being provided to support surrounding areas locally at the Kings Arms, Stainton CA11 0EP. Open until late (supported by village hall as warm space). Providing hot food and drinks.
The Met Office’s Amber weather warning remains in place for all of the North West until midnight on Friday. Large parts of the UK and Ireland have been impacted by Storm Éowyn with more than 1.1million properties affected.
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