North Devon engineers praised for efforts after Storm Darragh

Despite facing challenging conditions, including fallen trees and blocked roads, local teams from National Grid Electricity Distribution have already made significant progress. 

The storm, described as “the biggest the region has faced in many years,” caused extensive damage to overhead power lines, leaving thousands without electricity.

A spokesperson for National Grid said: “Storm Darragh has been the biggest storm the region has faced in many years and the South West was under a yellow weather warning until last night (December 8)

“This has resulted in an unprecedented number of network faults due to the exceptionally high winds causing falling trees which affected overhead lines. Access to sites has also been made difficult due to routes being blocked by fallen trees.

“Our engineering teams have been working around the clock to fix power cuts in North Devon and will continue to do so as quickly as possible.

“Currently there are 3,918 homes and businesses without power in North Devon and we apologise to all customers for the delay in getting them restored, but hope to make more progress throughout the day.”

Thanks to their efforts, power has already been restored to over 1.5 million homes and businesses across the UK. 

In North Devon, 3,918 homes and businesses remain affected, but teams are continuing to work relentlessly to reconnect these areas as soon as possible.