A hotel has been left to cope with the “devastating” aftermath of a power cut caused by Storm Darragh. The storm, which led the Met Office to issue a red “danger to life” warning, left hundreds of thousands of properties in Wales without power.
On Saturday, December 7, Simon Daniel, general manager at Nant Ddu Lodge near Merthyr Tydfil, was getting ready to serve 180 families at a lunch with Santa when the power went out. It did not come back on until Monday afternoon. As well the power, the lodge lost gas, water and all communications through telephone lines and the internet, meaning it became virtually impossible to contact guests and tell them their bookings would be cancelled.
On top of this, Mr Daniel also faced the lodge’s cellar flooding. He said: “We have a permanent pump in our cellar as it’s below ground. As soon as the power goes off and pump stops, the cellar floods so there was around 5ft of water in there.”
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With only one open fire in one of the bars to heat the lodge and no way to cook any hot meals, guests checked out early on Saturday. Mr Daniel also had to face some “very upset children” who arrived to find out that lunch with Santa had been cancelled.
The lodge is still counting how much the power cut has cost them in losses, but due to the fully stocked fridges and freezers prepared ready for a busy weekend that had to be cancelled, Mr Daniel said they have had to throw out over £10,000 worth of food. As well as this, the storm and power cut devastated their sales after bookings had to be cancelled and guests were forced to check out early.
Mr Daniel explained: “We’ve lost tens of thousands of pounds worth of sales, at the most important time of the year. As well as the fully-booked lunch with Santa, rooms and spa, Sunday lunch, we had 160 guests booked in. On Monday, we have lots of corporate guests check in who stay until the Friday. But, because the power was still off on Monday, they went and booked elsewhere for the whole week so we’re losing money even now the power is back on.”
Storm Darragh also brought down seven trees around the property, two of which hit staff members’ cars. For the latest Merthyr Tydfil news, sign up to our newsletter here.
The manager described communication with the National Grid during the power cut as “frustrating”. While driving around on Saturday morning to try and get phone signal, he said he bumped into an engineer who said that it was unlikely that power would be restored before Monday or Tuesday.
Mr Daniel said: “When he said it was likely to be 48 hours before we had power back we were just devastated. The website was telling us that it would be Saturday afternoon.
“There was no communication, apart from to say check the website for updates. The website was saying power would be restored at 6pm, and then at 6.05pm it would then say it would be 6am tomorrow when it would change again.” Mr Daniel said he spent four and a half hours trying to get through the National Grid on Sunday.
Mr Daniel claimed that the lodge can be affected by power cuts whether there is poor weather or not, which adds to his frustrations. He added: “It’s so demoralising. Earlier on in the week, we had a power cut for four hours in the early hours of the morning.
“We get powercuts here all year, regardless of the weather. There’s obviously something wrong with the distribution network to Nant Ddu when we are only five miles from the centre of Merthyr Tydfil.”
The Nant Ddu Lodge was able to reopen on Tuesday afternoon and has rescheduled lunch with Santa for December 23. Guests who were booked in the lodge have the option to transfer their deposit to a new date, or receive a refund.
A National Grid Electricity Distribution spokesperson said: “We understand that the loss of electricity due to Storm Darragh has caused problems for customers, including the Nant Ddu Lodge, and we apologise for the difficulty they and others have experienced during power cuts.
“Following the storm, power was restored in the area at 3.22pm on Monday. We know losing power is hard and we have been working around the clock to reconnect properties as fast as we can.”
National Grid added that the majority of customers had power restored within 24 hours and that the estimated time for when they think faults will be restored is based on the “best information” available at the time.
Mr Daniel said that Nant Ddu are happy to be reopen, albeit “with a few gaps in the tree line” and are “very grateful” for people’s support in booking again rather than getting a refund.