More than 28,000 properties across the South West without power
Watch Marina Jenkins' report
28,400 properties across the South West are still without power today (Sunday 20 February), with the worst affected areas in Somerset and North Devon.
Western Power say Storm Eunice has been the worst storm they have ever experienced in the South West region.
David Moss in Cranmore in Somerset is one of those who lost power during the storm: "The house does get very cold. Even if you've got a wood burner going, you can't heat a house like this. It's a very old cottage.
"We haven't opened our freezers but obviously after 24 hours you assume anything in there is no longer going to be safe to eat. You feel at a bit of a loss."
Overnight Western Power have told ITV News they've restored supplies to over 28,000 customers and are apologising to those they haven't been able to get to yet.
In a statement Western Power say: "We are extremely sorry to customers still off supply. We have thousands of staff across WPD working to restore power and to keep customers informed.
"Hundreds of business support staff from across our wider business have been drafted in for the last several days to take customer calls – with volumes remaining around 8 times busier than usual. We have also handled over a month’s worth of hits on our website – over 1.1 million - in a single day.
"Our teams are up against some horrible weather as they battle the elements to get the lights back on. The Met Office has now named Storm Franklin, which is bringing strong winds for the next 24 hours. The worst of the conditions should be to the north of our region but we will be experiencing strong winds, which may cause further issues."
"Examples of the extreme incidents we are encountering include the roof of the RNLI lifeboat station in Sennen Cove, near Penzance, landing on overhead lines. Meanwhile, near Tavistock an entire row of trees has fallen onto an overhead line.
Operations Director Graham Halladay said: “We have texted 24,000 of our customers in the South West to assure them that we are still working on fixing the network. We care about every single customer – the thought of the difficult circumstances customers are facing is spurring on our staff who are now into their third day of repairs, with the weather outlook looking increasingly poor for the week ahead too. Everyone here will keep going until all of our customers have power again. The weather is not being helpful but all of our teams in the field and in our control and contact centres are determined to fix this.
“None of us can remember experiencing three storms in a week before. And certainly not of this ferocity. Once again, I urge customers who see a fallen power line to stay clear and call 105 immediately. Safety is paramount and our engineers are trained to deal with these issues and have the specialist equipment that keeps them safe. We are answering calls within 5 minutes on average and we have hundreds of additional staff from non-operational business functions taking calls so we can keep our customers informed as soon as new information is available from each site.”
The power supply company estimate that the majority of customers in our region will have their electricity restored by midnight with the remaining properties having power back by Monday. But have said some new faults could be waiting until Tuesday to be fixed.
People are being asked if they see damage to power equipment or spot electricity poles or power lines that are down, to stay clear of them and call 105.
Click here for live power cut information
By 5pm on Sunday the number of properties without power had reduced to 14,699.