Storm Malik homes still hit by power cut offered £15 per meal and accommodation
Homes still hit by Storm Malik power cuts are being offered financial aid if they remain in the dark.
Tens of thousands of households were hit by powercuts after the storm's high winds reaching speeds of 80mph battered the North East and Scotland on Friday.
Northern Powergrid is offering customers who remain without power on Saturday morning compensation of £15 per person for every meal and to cover accommodation costs while they await reconnection.
The company had managed to restore power to around 60,000 households by the morning, it said.
But up to 16,000 households were still without power on Sunday afternoon, as Storm Corrie was expected to bring another blast of strong winds.
Northern Powergrid said those affected are living in Northumberland and County Durham
A 'small proportion' of customers were expected to remain without power beyong the weekend, it warned earlier, after an estimated 80,000 were hit by cuts overnight.
The storm's 100mph winds battered northern parts of the UK, causing the deaths of a 60-year-old woman in Aberdeen, Scotland, and a nine-year-old boy in Winnothdale, near Tean, Staffordshire.
Northern Powergrid said the winds had been stronger that expected, and engineers were working to restore power while any impact of coming Storm Corrie, becomes clearer throughout today enabling more specific estimated restoration times.
Its director, Paul Glendinning, said in a statement on Saturday morning: “We have successfully restored supplies to more than 60,000 customers but given the amount of work that there is to do and the fact that we are expecting more high winds during Sunday afternoon, we think that it is likely that a relatively small proportion of our customers will remain without power beyond the weekend.
"At this point, we cannot be clear on exactly how many might not be restored today – and at this point we still intend to do everything we can to try to reconnect everyone today if at all possible."
He said Northern Powergrid's systems for tracking and logging outages had been improved, following lessons about its website's resiliences implemented after Storm Arwen.
However, the infrastructure provider did not have a clear view of the estimated time of restoration for all incidents, Mr Glendinning warned.
He said a time of 6pm on the power cut map meant engineers were working to get power back on at some point on Saturday today, but there remained a possibility that it could run beyond Sunday night.
People still affected by the cuts into the afternoon were being urged to watch for more precise estimates later.
Northern Powergrid customers were being urged to contact its 24/7 contact centre, or keep up to date on its social media channels.
People still without power on Sunday were being urged to "err on the side of caution" and consider seeking alternative accommodation.
Northern Powergrid said that for any domestic customer still off supply at 8am on January, 30 January:
It will pay reasonable costs for food of up to £15 per person per meal, and
It will pay the reasonable costs for alternative accommodationgfor anyone not reconnected by 2pm.
More information about making the claims is available on its website, as the company asked claimants to retain receipts and send them in an e-mail including an outline to stormmalikclaims@northernpowergrid.com.