Storm Arwen: Northumberland residents share experiences at public meetings

People affected by Storm Arwen in Northumberland have been encouraged to share their experiences at a series of public meetings.

Some lost power for up to two weeks after the storm hit about 240,000 properties in November and December.

The first meeting, organised by Hexham Conservative MP Guy Opperman, was held in Ponteland on Thursday.

Representatives of Northern Powergrid, which says it has already paid £330,000 in compensation, were also present.

They explained the sheer scale of the storm - described as the "worst in over 20 years" - and the windy weather that followed were among the reasons why homes spent so long without electricity.

Gillian Purdie, who lives with her teenage son, attended the meeting in Ponteland.

She was cut off for six days after the storm hit north-east England, Cumbria and Scotland on 26 November.

"We had no heating or light," she told BBC Radio Newcastle. "It was below zero every night, extremely cold.

"As a group of 200 residents, we tried to speak to Northern Powergrid on their emergency line but we couldn't get through.

"We were referred to the website which said our street had power. The website was incorrect.

"We had elderly ladies into their 90s who were living in extremely cold temperatures, with absolutely no end in sight. I feel it was a complete failure of Northern Powergrid's customer service team."

Reviews by the government and energy industry regular Ofgem have been under way since December into how power companies responded to the crisis.

Jim Cardwell from Northern Powergrid told the BBC it had already learnt lessons from the storm aftermath, particularly about its levels of communication with affected customers.

"In terms of handling extra capacity in big events and also the way we present information and give it out to people, that is already built into our systems this year," he said.

"We have built extra capacity into our telephony and website, for example."

The company said the "vast majority" of compensation cheques were sent out before Christmas, when some residents were still having to rely on temporary generators.

The energy distributor previously said it would take well into the new year to fix damage to overhead power lines before everyone was back on the main grid.

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