Northern Powergrid restores power to 60,000 homes and businesses

So far, the firm has restored power to more than 60,000 customers affected as a result of the storm. This morning, the teams are back out in the field working to restore supplies to the 19,000 customers that are still without power – and they are working to restore as many as possible today.

The storm brought windspeeds of over 80 mph. As the day unfolded, it became clear that the weather was quite a lot stronger than originally forecast, however the impact is still much lower than Storm Arwen.

Since 4am yesterday, around 80,000 customers have been affected by power cuts and around 23,000 customers are still affected, predominantly in Northumberland and County Durham. There has been some impact in Yorkshire, but not as severe.

Northern Powergrid director, Paul Glendinning, said: “We have successfully restored supplies to more than 55,000 customers but given the amount of work that there is to do and the fact that we are expecting more high winds on Sunday evening, it is possible that a relatively small proportion of our customers will remain without power beyond the weekend.

"At this stage, we are unable to be any more precise – in many cases we will be able to provide an update during Sunday of an earlier restoration time as the work progresses. We will provide updated estimates of restoration times for each incident as soon as more information is available on our website and social media channels."

Northern Powergrid is working closely with its local resilience partners to support those customers most affected. It has already deployed welfare support arrangements across the most affected regions and will be doing more today.

The firm is continuing to warn local people who spot any damaged cables or equipment not to approach the area as equipment may still be live and pose a risk of electrocution. Customers must contact the company immediately by calling 105.