Fifth day without power for 3,000 homes in South East following Storm Eunice
Video report from ITV News Meridian's Charlotte Wilkins
More than 3,000 homes in the South East remain without power for a fifth day following storm Eunice.
Some households in Battle and Bexhill are currently living without electricity and water as a result of storm damage.
ITV News Meridian spoke to some of the residents this morning, who were collecting crates of bottled water from a local carpark.
One said: "It's quite difficult, obviously with washing machines, dishwashers, can't flush the loo, showers... it's pretty hard."
Whilst another resident added: "Well we've been without power since Friday. Luckily we have gas so we can actually cook. But no heating of course."
Bexhill residents collect bottled water after being left without power and running water
The lack of power is being blamed for the issue with the water supply. This is due to the pumps that push the water through to the households being operated by electricity.
A spokesperson for South East Water, said: "We've got a fixed generator at a number of our sites and we have the ability to link in hire-in generators at more sights"
"Normally in storms like these we have enough flexibility in the system to move water around so if certain sites go off it is not so much of a problem"
"The real problem we've got here is that it is such a widespread issue, such a large number of sites affected, that the normal plans we have in place haven't been able to cope"
Teams from UK Power Networks have been working across the region freeing power cables which have been brought down or damaged by falling trees.
The teams have been working on the fallen trees in stages, which is a time consuming process. Once the cable is eventually freed it will eventually be winched back into position.
But even once it’s there there is no guarantee the power will be restored straight away. It depends on much of the line is damaged.
The companies say that work to repair the damage is going on across the network to ensure the electricity is restored as quick as possible.