A pensioner living in an isolated area of Carmarthenshire has described how he and his wife have been rationing logs and hot water as they wait for power to be restored after Storm Darragh. They are one of tens of thousands of households who have been living without power for more than two days after the storm hit.
As of Monday morning, over 40,000 homes across Wales were still without electricity after the strong winds of up to 90mph damaged parts of the network. Postcodes in Mountain Ash, Brecon, Abergavenny, Cowbridge and Carmarthen are all still affected. Since Storm Darragh, 400,000 homes in south Wales, the area of the network supplied by the National Grid, have faced power outages.
While the National Grid have restored power to over 400,000 properties, as of 8am on Monday morning, 32,056 customers are still off supply in south Wales. One of these people who are still left without electricity is 71-year-old Richard Davies, who lives in Dryslwyn, near Carmarthen, with his wife.
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The power has been out at their home since mid-afternoon on Saturday, December 7. As Storm Darragh battered the Welsh coastline in the early hours of the morning, the mobile service in Richard’s area was down when he woke up but there was still power.
“Mid-afternoon, the power went out and we had no internet either. The latest estimate is that it could be back at 10pm on Tuesday, but that’s obviously an estimate.” Richard is concerned that it may not even be back then, over 72 hours on from when they first lost power.
He said, “Initially we were told it would be Saturday evening, then it changed to midday on Sunday, then 6pm on Sunday. Now, it says Tuesday evening.” For the latest Carmarthenshire news, sign up to our newsletter here
There is a huge clean up operation to clear away the damage caused by the storm and restore power across the network -Credit:Richard Swingler Photography
He added that lots of his neighbours “have abandoned their houses” to go and stay with relatives nearby, but the couple don’t have this option as their family don’t live in the area. They have been getting by using their log fire to heat the house and cooking the simple hot meal with their gas hob.
“We’ve run out of logs for the log fire now so we’re trying to get a delivery this morning,” he said. “We have a hot water tank but now we’re at the end of our hot water, even though we’ve been using it sparingly. We’ve been going out to eat whenever we can.
“It’s liveable but it’s just really difficult. We have had the occasional outage before but it’s never been for this long.
“We’ve been lighting the fire first thing in the morning and using blankets, but the house is still only around 16 degrees.” Moving to the rural area seven years ago, Richard said they had anticipated from the occasional power outage so made sure the home had utilities such as the gas hob and the wood burner.
He added that the hob and burner are “the only saving graces from making the house completely unliveable.” As Richard and his wife are members of the local club in Llandeilo, they have been able to go and charge their devices there to ensure they stay connected.
“You just realise how much you need them when everyone is telling you to check websites for updates or report outages,” Richard said.
First Minister Eluned Morgan said she was “particularly concerned” about vulnerable people after a “really tough weekend”.
She said@ “I’m really aware there are lots of people still who don’t have electricity and I’m particularly concerned about vulnerable people, so I would ask you to check on your neighbours, make sure they’re warm. The electricity companies are coming to help you as soon as possible.”
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.”