Storm Arwen: How are people coping with power cuts?

Thousands of homes have been left without power after Storm Arwen brought down lines and poles. How are people coping?

Sarah Milburn and Liam Milner were watching the film Nativity when the lights started to flicker on Friday night, followed shortly by a total outage.

Three days later they are still bundled in layers of clothes, hats and gloves in their home on the edge of Rothbury, Northumberland, their one source of heat a gas fire in the living room.

"A power cut at any other time of year would be easier," Sarah says, adding: "It's just so cold."

Yet Sarah considers herself one of the lucky ones.

"I can't help but think of other people who have no heat at all, older people and people who rely on medical equipment" she says, adding: "It has been quite scary."

When the lights started to dip at about 20:00 GMT, Sarah and Liam boiled a kettle and filled several thermos flasks so they had some hot water stores.

That water ran out by Saturday morning and they have been using their neighbour's gas hobs to cook pot noodles and porridge to keep them going.

They have been sleeping beneath a mound of multiple duvets and blankets as the snow fell outside, while they also spent two days without any water supply.

They got a text message from Northern Powergrid on Friday telling them the power would be restored by 23:00 that night, but the latest update now says 23:00 on Monday.

"I am not optimistic," Sarah says with a laugh, adding: "I know they are doing everything they can, we will just have to wait."

Storm Arwen brought winds of up 98mph to Northumberland and at one point on Friday, all three roads in and out of Rothbury were blocked by fallen trees.

"No emergency service vehicles could get through but then we had also lost both mainline and mobile phone signals so no-one could have called for them in the first place," Sarah says.

The community has rallied round according to the area's county councillor Stephen Bridgett, with a support centre powered by a generator set up in the village hall where people can get food and warmth.

Sarah has not been yet, preferring, she says, to let those in more need get the supplies.

"We can cope," she says, adding: "We will be fine. It is just very cold."

Their home is one of the more than 32,000 still without power in the North East, Northern Powergrid having already restored power to some 208,000 households.

It is a similar situation in Cumbria, where some 4,000 have been powerless since Friday night.

"We've had power cuts of up to 24 hours before but never anything of this magnitude" says Lesley Airey, who lives in Coniston and is helping run a support centre at the Lake District town's Sports and Social Centre.

She estimates about 800 people in the local area are without power.

"Some have gas cookers or open fires so they can create some heat and do some cooking," she says, adding: "But others have nothing."

Lesley, whose gas central heating has stopped working, says she keeps warm thanks to her winter duvet and spending her time at the sports centre.

The area lost power at about 20:00 on Friday after a "33,000-volt mainline went down", Lesley says, and the earliest it could be back on is 16:00 GMT on Monday although she has also been warned it could be Tuesday or even Wednesday before it is restored.

"You have to be fairly stoical about it," she says, adding: "It's just one of those things, it has happened, you either deal with it or you don't.

"The electrical company workers are coming into the club and they look exhausted, there is no doubt they are working flat-out."

By Saturday morning, with it evident power would be out for a while, the club spoke to the emergency services and a generator was provided by the power company to create a hub where people could get heat and food.

Local restaurants and cafes have donated ingredients which would have been spoiled, and the club's kitchens have produced a steady stream of bacon and sausage butties and cups of soup.

With mobile phone signal out for a time, volunteers have been knocking on doors to tell people the hub is open, while some have been taking hot food to those residents unable to get to the centre.

About 100 people used the centre on Sunday night with a further 60 or 70 in on Monday morning, although no-one has yet spent the night.

"We have had people come and say they had a broken night's sleep because they were so cold," Lesley says.

Both Northern Powergrid and Electricity North West said they were working tirelessly to get the power restored as soon as possible.

Sarah in Rothbury is one of the thousands eager for that to happen, having two chief desires.

"Watch Strictly and have a proper oven-cooked meals," she says with a laugh.

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