Storm Arwen: Five days and counting without electricity

Communities in the north of England say they are in a "precarious" situation after five days without power.

Householders have criticised power companies for the slow speed of repairs and "woeful" communication.

Northern Powergrid (NP) and Electricity North West (ENW) apologised for the delays but said the damage caused by Storm Arwen had been "unprecedented".

Brenda Burnip, from Crawcrook in Northumberland, said live electricity cables left dangling had caught fire.

They had "killed a couple of animals and are now alight", she said.

In her community of 10 houses still without power, seven people were over 70, two were under six and she has Parkinson's Disease and secondary cancer, she said.

She had "no lights, no heating or hot water, no cooking facilities, no showers and one gas fire which only warms two rooms", she said.

"It takes over an hour to get any response to ringing [the power company]," she added.

"I appreciate this was exceptional situation but our situation is now becoming precarious."

Making a statement in the Commons, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said 95% of those who had lost power across the country had now had it restored, with others coming back online shortly.

Richard O'Connor, who works at the Lord Crewe Arms in Blanchland, said: "I'll believe that when I see it.

"I understand they [NP] have a very difficult task ahead but they have been changing the goalposts since the power went off.

"The timings have gone from 12pm to 2.45pm to 6pm to midnight, on a loop, every day, so it doesn't fill me with much confidence."

An email saying power would be restored by 23:00 GMT on Tuesday was sent on Wednesday morning, and the power was still off, he said.

Tony and Nicola Hills from Kirkby Lonsdale have been without power at both their home and business since Friday evening.

They have five children under 10, including 20-month-old twins and a four-year-old.

Food in their freezer has been ruined and they had to drive 15 miles to a launderette, Mr Hills said.

"We are priority customers but haven't been informed about updates and, even though I phoned ENW to report the power cut at 06:26 on Saturday, they didn't recognise our fault until Monday," he said.

"We understand how hard ENW have been working and appreciate the magnitude of the problems they have in restoring supplies - our only issue is lack of information about when we will be reconnected."

Dr Lily Fulton-Humble, from Alnwick, Northumberland, also has children - a seven-week-old baby and a toddler - and said engineers were doing a "fantastic job" but NP's communication was "pretty appalling".

"I had to re-report the power cut two days ago, because they listed us as no longer affected," she said.

Samantha Devine said her village of Stonehaugh in Northumberland had been "forgotten" by the company.

It had no power, phone signal or Wi-Fi and no shops, public transport or services nearby, she said.

"Stonehaugh does not even appear on the [Northern Powergrid] maps as having no power," she said.

"We have been told nothing about how long this is going to go on for and cannot speak to anyone.

"The black hole of communication is now too much and our patience is wearing very thin."

Jane in Spark Bridge, Cumbria, said she was also "feeling rather let down" by her power company, ENW.

She said it was "useless" for a spokesman to tell BBC Radio Cumbria the firm had reached out to customers via all media channels when people had no electricity and no mobile phone signal with which to access these.

"I was disappointed that he didn't seem to have an understanding of this," she said.

"I drove out last night to get some phone coverage only to pick up a voicemail from ENW saying they were hoping to be able to speak to someone.

"Do they not realise the extent of what's going on in the homes without power or communication?"

She said it was a "shambles" that the waiting time to speak to someone at the firm was more than an hour.

Susan Cochrane said the response from NP had been "woeful".

"Nobody is answering phones, social media messages or calling or texting with updates," she said.

"The only communication is the shifting deadline they've been issuing every day for power to be restored published on their website.

"That is usually 16:00, a time which has come and gone every day with no power restored and no further information."

The company said it had provided hot meals, drinks and mobile phone charging for the worst-affected communities and most vulnerable customers, and had drafted in extra resources to its customer call centre.

Compensation would be available for extra costs incurred and it would consider "each customer's circumstances on a case-by-case basis", a spokesperson said.

ENW said it was trying to do all it could to help customers, including moving the most vulnerable into hotels and sending out hot food vans, with details of locations on its website.

The company said it was "very hard to find ways to get messages through to people" and that many repairs revealed further damage, delaying the anticipated power restoration time.

It insisted it had learned lessons from past storms but said it had "never seen such devastation as this".

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