Storm Eunice: Thousands of South West homes still without power

• Watch Marina Jenkins' report.

Thousands of homes across the South West are still without power after Storm Eunice battered the region.

Winds of up to 90 miles per hour caused widespread disruption as trees were uprooted and properties damaged.

Many were left without power, with nearly 15,000 homes still affected by the outage.

Western Power said “hundreds” of its staff are working to restore power, despite another weather warning being issued for Storm Franklin - the third named storm in a week.

‘Doing our level best’

Operations Director Graham Halladay said: “This has been the worst storm we have ever experienced in our South West region and I am grateful for the incredible resilience our customers are showing. 

“We are doing our utmost to get the network fixed as soon as possible. We have had hundreds of faults, many of them affecting a small number of customers.

“Unfortunately, the sheer devastation Storm Eunice left has made accessing and repairing faults extremely challenging, which is why it is taking longer than we would like to carry out repairs.

“We are sorry and we are doing our level best to get every single customer’s lights back on.”

One of those affected is David Moss, who lives with his wife Leila in the village of Cranmore.

"The house does get very cold, even if you've got a wood burner going," he said.

"But you can't heat a house like this, it's a very old cottage, and now it's been over 24 hours.

"We haven't opened our freezers but after 24 hours, you would assume that anything in there is no longer going to be safe to eat. You feel at a bit of a loss."

Western Power has said it hopes to restore power to all homes by this evening (February 21).