Tens of thousands of homes are still without power in Wales this morning following the chaos caused by Storm Darragh over the weekend. While engineers have been working to try and restore power, there is still lots of damage to be fixed after the storm brought strong winds of up to 93mph to Wales.
The storm has affected over 400,000 homes in south Wales, the area of the network supplied by the National Grid, and as of 8am on Monday morning, 32,056 customers are still without power. Postcodes throughout south Wales, from areas Bridgend to Cowbridge are still affected by the outages.
As of 10am on Monday morning, a further 9,845 homes still without power in north Wales, where the network is operated by SP Energy Networks. Many of these power cuts started in the early hours of Saturday morning as Storm Darragh battered Wales, meaning homes have now faced two nights without electricity while engineers continued their efforts to restore power. There are also 15 flood warnings and alerts still in place in Wales.
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SP Manweb arranged for a catering company in Anglesey to provide hot meals to those without power and also collaborated with the Red Cross who are going door-to-door to check on customers on SP Manweb’s Priority Service Register in Wales to see what additional support can be provided, including accommodation and welfare packs.
Local councils across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, and Powys have opened drop-in centres to support residents still impacted by disruptions. These hubs provide warm spaces, facilities for hot drinks and charging mobile devices, and sometimes even showers, reports North Wales Live.
Details on the specific locations and their operational hours are accessible through council websites and social media platforms. For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter
Trees were blown over in Llandudno’s Happy Valley during Storm Darragh -Credit:Aaran Lennox
A National Grid Electricity Distribution spokesperson said: “Our regions bore the brunt of the awful conditions caused by Storm Darragh but we have made significant progress restoring power to more than 1.5 million customers since it hit our network.
“We’ll be aiming to get the remaining customers off supply reconnected as quickly as possible and apologise for the ongoing inconvenience they are facing as they wait for power to be restored.”
Liam O’Sullivan, SP Manweb Director, said: “We worked through the night where it was safe to do so and had more engineers out at first light to continue to restore power. We are making good progress with every team available working to get people back on supply.
“We have additional resources from Merseyside and Scotland and are continuing to use helicopters to identify faults where roads are impassable and specialist tree cutting teams working to clear debris from lines to help our engineers get to where they need to make repairs.
“We are prioritising customers who’ve been off power the longest as well as providing additional support such as accommodation, welfare packs and hot food to those most in need.
“We’d remind anyone experiencing a new power outage to report it to us by calling the free, national emergency helpline 105.”
SPEN has managed over 44,000 customer calls and proactively reached out to 68,000 customers on the Priority Services Register. Hot food, hotels and other support were being provided based on customer need.
It stated that SP Energy Networks invested billions to ensure its network is safe, reliable and resilient, but extreme weather increases the chance of power cuts. For more information on what to do in the event of a power emergency, visit spenergynetworks.co.uk.
If you are in north Wales, check on the status of your outage, click the Scottish Power map here. For those in South Wales, you can check the National Grid map here.