Storm Eunice: Cornwall and Devon clean-up continues

Thousands left without power by Storm Eunice may remain cut off until Monday evening, an energy firm has warned.

About 30,000 properties across south-west England lost electricity as some of the strongest winds in decades battered the UK on Friday.

A clean-up continues after 80mph (129km/h) gusts damaged buildings and cars and uprooted trees.

Steve Cross, of Western Power, said engineers were working to restore power as quickly as possible.

"I've been in this industry for 27 years and I haven't seen a storm as sharp and intense as Storm Eunice," he said.

"What we're trying to do is give people an idea of the worst-case scenario, and that could potentially be into Monday, end of play Monday."

Transport in the region continues to be affected, and Great Western Railway warned that the main line remained severely disrupted.

A company spokesperson said passengers should only travel if it was "absolutely necessary".

Call handlers at Devon and Cornwall Police said Friday was one of their busiest days in more than 25 years, with more than 1,100 emergency calls being received.

A yellow weather warning for wind is in place for Cornwall and much of Devon until 18:00 BST on Saturday, with winds up to 60mph (97km/h) possible.

Amanda Pennington, Mayor of Wadebridge, said the town hall opened at 10:00 GMT to help people who have been without power for more than 24 hours.

"They've not been able to heat their homes, they've not been able to have hot food, they've not been able to contact anyone because they can't charge their telephones," she said.

"So I think people are quite relieved… We're going to stay open as long as we can today."

Paignton Zoo in South Devon is to remain closed all weekend after significant damage to trees and services.

The attraction's website said the team would be concentrating on looking after the animals and making the necessary repairs.

Dartmoor Zoo has also suffered extensive damage to a perimeter fence of a rhea enclosure after a 60ft (18m) tree blew over, with estimated repair costs of £10.000.

Benjamin Mee, the chief executive of the zoo, said: "Normally it's mixed with the wallabies and if the wallabies had been in this section they'd have been through there and probably happily cavorting all over south Devon."

The National Trust's Lanhydrock near Bodmin also announced on social media it would remain closed over the weekend after several trees uprooted.

Cornwall Councillor Martyn Alvey said people should remain cautious.

"We've still got strong winds, we've got a lot of property damage throughout Cornwall so please be careful.

"We've still got some very high waves out there, we're coming on to spring tides again, whilst we've not got the flood warnings we had yesterday there are still flood alerts out around the county", he said.

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