Mum left without electricity for two days as hundreds still experiencing Storm Arwen power cuts

Hundreds of homes, largely in north and mid Wales, were left without electricity over the weekend and into Monday after Storm Arwen brought extreme weather and winds of 80mph.

One mother living in Wrexham with a seven-week-old baby said her power was only restored on Sunday evening after a power cut began on Friday evening.

SP Energy Networks, who supply electricity to north Wales, posted on social media to say their teams had been working through Sunday night and that the company is "committed to getting customers without power back on as quickly and safely" as possible.

Animal rescue centres across the country reported power outages and storm damage to their buildings, with a puppy dying at one rescue site near Carmarthen after a power cut that lasted several hours.

On Saturday, travellers also faced disruption as Transport for Wales suspended all their trains due to the poor weather conditions.

Alicia Way, who lives in Wrexham with her three children, lost all power to her house on Friday. She said she has had to wrap her older children up in extra layers to keep the warm as temperatures plummeted over the weekend.

Ms Way explained: “I’m not happy because he [seven-week-old son Kaleb] is basically a newborn baby and obviously there are other families with young babies, and it’s not fair on them."All I want is for the kids to be warm."

She added: “I’ve had to put him in his coat and things like that, and we haven’t been able to steralise his bottles properly.”

The young mum said she was told by SP Energy Networks that her power would be back by Saturday. However her electricity was only restored late on Sunday night - and many other families were still stuck without electricity or gas on Monday too.

"All of our stuff in our freezer has defrosted,” said Ms Way."I haven't long done a big shop for the run-up to Christmas, all my frozen food has defrosted and is now unsafe to eat, some things in my fridge have also gone off."

However Ms Way explained that all of those items can be replaced.

"I was more concerned about the heating the house for the kids. I wasn't bothered by anything else, I just wanted the babies warm. And obviously I can't wrap up [the seven-week-old] too much because you run the risk of them overheating."The mum-of-three said she was told by SP Energy Networks that they were prioritising other groups.“Obviously I understand the situation and it can’t be helped because it is weather related, but I do think they [SP Energy Networks] should help to do more for families, especially ones with young children,” she said.

"All SP Energy did was say they could offer compensation. Other than that, I wasn't advised that there was anywhere we could go or anything like that, for help."

In a statement on Monday afternoon, an SP Energy Networks spokesperson said over the weekend their network experienced "some of the worst damage...in over 15 years".

They said: "We apologise to all of our customers who have been affected by the damage, we understand the inconvenience this has caused many households and we appreciate everyone’s patience whilst we continue to try to resolve the ongoing issues.

"The time it is taking us to get our customers back on is reflective of the number of faults and severity of the damage to the network; where normally we would deal with one or two faults on a line and be able to get a number of customers on, we’re finding several faults on one line and where this is repaired we’re only able to restore power to a small handful of customers.

“We’re continuing to keep our customers up-to-date with our progress and we’re keeping in in touch with our vulnerable customers throughout the day, ensuring they are updated with our progress, organising hot food and drinks and providing other welfare services for them as needed. We are also offering our customers reimbursement for hot food if they continue to be off supply.

"Beyond this, we will be offering accommodation to vulnerable customers tonight if they are likely to still be off supply.”

Currently 3,600 SP Energy Network customers across England and Wales are still without power, with the Dee Valley, mid Wales and north Wales worst affected.

Some people in parts of south Wales who have their power supplied by Western Power Distribution are also still experiencing outages.

On Monday morning they said around 85 homes in south Wales are still affected and they reassured customers that they are "working to resolve" the "small number of ongoing incidents".

Storm Arwen has also caused significant problems for animal rescue centres. More than £60,000 has now been raised for Many Tears Animal rescue centre but many others have been affected too.

Woodfield Animal Sanctuary on the Gower lost a field shelter for their cows and are now appealing for help to repair storm damage and find a new shed for the cattle.

Similarly, at Trallwm Farm Sanctuary, a barn housing a newly rescued cow had its roof blown off. Lesley Cooper, who runs the rescue farm said she had seven "terrified calfs" in the barn next door who were all adopted and fed by another cow.

A pub manager in Bridgend had a close call when a tree fell just inches from her head as a result of Storm Arwen gusts.

Cheryl Pound popped out for a cigarette after clearing up for the night when the winds felled a huge tree into the pub garden.

Ms Pound said: "I think if I wasn't under the shelter I would definitely be dead."We'd been serving behind the bar all night and it was windy but I wasn't really concerned. I was just having a cigarette and I heard a crack. I honestly thought someone had jumped the wall."I went to walk out of the shelter and I don't know why but something told me to step back. The next thing I knew the tree just came down."She added: "There's quite a bit of damage. They're still getting rid of the tree and there are four tables broken, with umbrellas. It damaged the smoking shelter too."

The strong winds even meant one man in Cwmbran woke up to a caravan overturned in his garden after it had blown from a neighbour's property 15 doors away.

ITV bosses were forced to postpone filming at Gwrych Castle for I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! because of Storm Arwen. It was the first time a show had been cancelled in 19 years.

During the storm, the production marquees at the castle in Abergele sustained "significant damage" while the base experienced severe technical issues. As a result, all but a skeleton crew of "essential staff" were evacuated from the site.Initially, the celebrities remained at the castle but ITV producers later reversed their decision and the campmates were also removed from the castle.

ITV confirmed that the celebrities will return to the castle from quarantine and the show will resume once production is safe to continue.