Grimley Residents Endure Prolonged Power Outage Following Storm Darragh

Residents, particularly the elderly, in Grimley, Worcestershire, continue to be without electricity four days after Storm Darragh disrupted the power supply. The outage began around 15:00 GMT on Saturday. Robin Woodhouse, a local resident and parish councillor, noted that the village population is “predominantly [people who are] 70 years old or plus,” emphasizing that conditions were “very difficult without electricity.” National Grid extended its thanks to customers for their patience and confirmed that its engineers were working to restore power as quickly as possible. Mr. Woodhouse stated that he was initially informed power would be reinstated by Saturday evening. He told BBC Hereford & Worcester, “We rang again and then it was going to be Monday evening at 6 o’clock,” adding, “and then… it was 9 o’clock and [on Tuesday] they’re again saying 9 o’clock.” He concluded, “So it is quite confusing about where we’re going and what we’ve got to do.” Mr. Woodhouse, 70, and his wife, also 70, have been staying with their adult children in Broadheath and Hallow for showers and meals, returning home only to sleep. However, not all villagers have family living nearby. He mentioned, “There [is] a couple two doors away that have got health problems,” stating, “They are in a seriously bad way.” Mr. Woodhouse acknowledged the difficulty engineers face in reaching the electricity pylons due to their partial submersion. National Grid issued a statement: “The adverse weather has made working conditions for our engineers challenging but since the start of the storm, we have restored over 1.5 million properties.” Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.