‘It’s hell’ - anger as Burnham-on-Sea park home site still without power after Storm Darragh
Max Walsh reports on the destruction caused by Storm Darragh in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset
Hundreds of people living at a park home site in Burnham-on-Sea are still without power days after Storm Darragh tore through the seaside town.
Gusts reached up to 75mph in the Somerset resort on Saturday night (7 December), with long-lasting north-westerleigh winds causing widespread damage across the town.
Large trees came down, falling onto people's homes and blocking roads, and many were left without power.
People living at Edithmead Leisure and Park Homes have been without power for more than 56 hours and say they feel "let down" by National Grid.
National Grid says it is working around the clock to restore power to all homes. As of 2pm today, the utility company said 14,594 properties remained without power in the South West while electricity supplies had been restored for 858,993 customers since the start of Storm Darragh.
Dawn Alden owns a home on the park and the power is having severe consequences for her.
“My husband has terminal cancer,” she said. “I’ve got to keep his medication cold, I can’t even do that.
“What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to survive this?”
Janet and Neil, both in their 80s, also live on the site and say it has been "hell".
“Absolute hell”, Janet said. “I woke up at 3am on Saturday because the wind was howling around. I got up, made a cup of tea and as I made a cup of tea the electric went.
“The thing is, you can’t cook, you can’t have any heating on, you can’t shower - and you’re cold."
David Tattersall, group manager for West Country Park Homes, said the past few days have been "horrendous".
“We’ve been without power now for just coming up to 56 hours and it’s caused a multitude of problems for residents on the park," he told ITV News.
Elsewhere The Ritz Cinema and Social Club was another victim of the storm. All of its solar panels came off of its roof, having only been installed three months ago.
“There was 117 in total,” said general manager Paul Hale. “They’re all [gone].”
They had only been installed three months ago, costing tens of thousands of pounds.
“I got the phone call at 7am on Saturday that solar panels were blowing down the road.
“We tried to remove one of the panels from the road but the wind was so strong that we did one panel and that was it.”
Director of customer excellence for the National Grid Emma Pamplin said: “Storm Darragh is the biggest storm our region has faced in decades.
“Our engineers, control rooms, contact centre and support teams have been working around the clock to maintain power across the network.
“We continue to see extremely high volumes of calls to our contact centre and I'm afraid it is taking a little longer for customers to get through. In addition to the contact centre, customers can reach us via social media and our website.
“I want to thank customers for their patience and understanding and assure you all that we are doing everything we can to get power restored across the region as soon as possible.”