People have been lighting candles in the “pitch black” as some have been affected by power cuts for more than 24 hours due to Storm Darragh.
The Energy Networks Association said around 161,000 customers were still without power as of 2pm on Sunday due to damage caused by the storm, but added that 91% of affected customers had now had their connection restored.
A woman near Rackenford, Devon, said she went for more than 24 hours without power from 12.30pm on Saturday and the family were without water other than one tap, forcing them to collect rainwater to flush the toilets.
Theresa White, 55, told the PA news agency: “It was pitch black so we played a few card games and things like that, and tried to get in touch (with our energy provider).”
“We had no internet, and all our phone signals weren’t working, so we were basically cut off and we do live in a wooded area,” she said, adding that they were too scared to leave the house on Saturday in case a tree fell on them.
“We did have a massive tree come down yesterday afternoon, but luckily it fell into the rest of the woodland and not onto our buildings, so we just sat tight.”
Ms White’s family went to a relative’s home on Sunday and Ms White’s husband purchased new work clothes, because the family was unable to do any washing due to the power cut.
⛈️ Storm Darragh Udate ⛈️
— National Grid UK Customers (ex-WPD) (@gridcustomersuk) December 8, 2024
👷♀️ Our teams have worked tirelessly to restore supplies to 1.3m homes and businesses affected by Storm Darragh.
🏠 As of 2pm, 118,922 properties are without power and we have restored power to 1,348,063 customers.
Roisin Quinn, our Field… pic.twitter.com/uIDxZHigJE
Ms White rang their energy provider EDF, but the customer service person “couldn’t comprehend” that their meter is from the 1960s and is not a smart meter, she said.
“She eventually went away and spoke to (National Grid) apparently and she says, ‘now some people have got electric and some people haven’t, and we should have electric by Monday at 8pm’,” she added.
Ms White’s family ultimately had their electricity restored at around 3pm on Sunday.
Deb Knowles, 43, told PA she was lighting candles and using a torch in her house on Saturday, and decided to take her unwell children to her mother’s house on Sunday.
“My mum is in remission (from cancer) and catching this flu or chest infection would be dangerous for her but I have no choice, the kids need warmth, hot water and food,” she said.
She added: “I’ve been pretty much trying all night, all this morning, all day, to call the 105 number to report the outage, because on the website, it’s saying that there is no known outage, so I don’t know if they know that we have nothing.”
“I feel very annoyed and very frustrated,” she said when asked how she feels about not being able to get through to the National Grid.
“I’ve spoken to the neighbours. We’re all in the same sort of situation.”
As Ms Knowles has been unable to log the outage, she does not have an estimate for when the power will return.
“I can’t believe that in a first-world country, the only way to log an emergency is through one telephone number. It’s quite ridiculous,” she added.
“I mean, there’s hundreds of thousands of people in the same particular predicament as me. I’m not the only person, so I understand that there’s a lot of people getting through, but there should be more ways to log that there’s no power than one telephone number.”
A yellow wind warning for the whole of England and Wales remains in place until 6pm, with the Met Office warning further strong winds of up to 70mph could cause possible short-term loss of power.
PA has contacted the National Grid for comment.
