Electricity Restored to Community Affected by Storm Darragh

Electricity has been re-established to residences that were isolated for several days following the impact of Storm Darragh across the UK. In Porlock Weir, Somerset, residents report discarding food valued at hundreds of pounds and state that their Christmas arrangements were “gone up in smoke” after their power outage lasted five days. “We’ve chucked everything out of the freezers, it’s all gone bad,” commented Jim Webber, a local resident, to the BBC, having experienced a lack of electricity and gas for five days. National Grid indicated that most households in Somerset have now regained power, though certain localities continue to experience interruptions. “It’s easily £300 worth because we bought stuff for Christmas, so that’s all gone,” Mr. Webber further stated. Mobile welfare units have been distributing warm meals and beverages to inhabitants of Porlock Weir and Chard, who “couldn’t get a hot meal.” “It’s been very difficult, its very cold,” Mr. Webber also remarked. He elaborated, “We’re in an old thatched cottage, we’ve had no heating bar one small wood burner, and nothing to cook with, no hot water, nothing.” Inhabitants of Vellow, situated close to Williton, are similarly just receiving their electricity supply back, having also lost it on Saturday. “It’s been pretty awful,” Fiona Meek conveyed to BBC Radio Somerset. She continued, “We’ve got lots of vulnerable people in Vellow and one chap is very sick, friends have managed to get him a generator.” Meek added, “If we had known it was going to take so long, we would have emptied the freezer, put the food somewhere.” She concluded, “You can’t contact people, your phone doesn’t work, people are worried about you. “It’s just been horrible.” A spokesperson for National Grid Electricity Distribution stated: “The vast majority of customers who lost power as a result of the storm have now been restored. “There are some pockets where small numbers of customers remain without power, and we have teams working around the clock to get them restored as soon as possible.” National Grid announced that it is compiling data regarding all electricity interruptions encountered throughout the storm period, in order to “assess eligibility for customer guarantee payments under the Standards of Performance.” They noted, “This normally takes 10 working days.” However, they cautioned, “this process may take longer during due to the impact of the storm and the number of customers affected.”