STORM DARRAGH UPDATE

As at 21.00

• 120,000 power cuts have been experienced by around 80,000 customers due to Storm Darragh.
• As expected, the weather has abated this evening and our teams are making the progress we expected in reconnecting the 4,700 customers who are still without power.
• We expect we will restore power to over 95% of customers by the end of Sunday.
• Our welfare support teams are out in the communities most affected providing hot meals and additional support, working with our Local Resilience Forum partners and supporting warm hubs.
• For those customers who have been without power for more than 24-hours, we are providing additional support including contributions to overnight accommodation. 

Storm Darragh brought strong winds across our regions throughout Saturday and Sunday. Our teams made great progress over the weekend, with over 120,000 power cuts having been restored since the storm hit, and will continue to restore power to as many of the remaining 4,700 people who are still without power.

The weather has finally abated and so progress into the evening has been in line with the expectations we briefed early in the afternoon: we will have restored over 95% of customers affected tonight but we will have around 3,000 customers without power until Monday, mainly in the North Yorkshire area. Most are affected by damage that has occurred on Sunday afternoon, during the latter stages of the storm.  

We have support teams out in our communities, going door to door to provide hot meals and welfare support, and we have contacted customers in the areas most affected to make sure they know the locations of our Customer Support Vehicles and what other support is available in their local area. 

For customers who have been without power for more than 24-hours, we are offering a £150 contribution to overnight accommodation and further financial support where appropriate.

The industry-wide mutual support arrangements have been initiated but as our region is not worst hit, we will not receive that support as it is redirected elsewhere. The great work of our team throughout the weekend positions us well to restore remaining customers tomorrow.