Clean-up and recovery efforts are under way across parts of the UK after Storm Boero caused flooding, property damage and widespread power cuts. About 90,000 homes remained without electricity on Monday, while two men were killed by fallen trees during the storm.
One of the victims was a man in his 20s in north London. The other was a 60-year-old man from Dumfries and Galloway in western Scotland.
Power restoration hampered by high winds
Storm Boero is the second storm to affect parts of the UK in recent days, following Storm Austin, which caused similar disruption. Strong winds and rain were expected to continue into Monday.
Leo Slade, chief executive of the Energy Networks Association (ENA), said it had been a “difficult weekend”. Efforts to reconnect some facilities were being hampered by weather conditions, including sustained winds of 50 to 85 miles per hour in parts of Scotland and northern England.
“Until the weather system passes, we cannot safely call in technicians to replace poles or restore power lines, so today will be a period of intense activity to get technicians to the scene,” Mr Slade told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He said the UK’s electricity grid was highly resilient and that money had been spent preparing for this type of situation. However, he said there needed to be a debate about how much additional investment was required to mitigate the effects of further storms linked to climate change.
Businesses affected by outages
Homes and local businesses have also been affected by power cuts caused by Storm Boero.
Marcus Reid, operations director at home fragrance maker Wax Lyrical, said the company’s factory and store in Lindall, Cumbria, would be without power until Tuesday evening.
He told the Today programme that he had been forced to turn away employees and customers.
“Losing two days of manufacturing and distribution would be a real disruption,” he said, adding that the timing was particularly difficult because it was “the busiest time of the year” for the company in the run-up to Christmas.
“This is probably the worst situation I’ve experienced since I’ve been here. We had an occasional problem with a power outage over the weekend, but it was over within 12 hours. This is the first time something like this has happened and it’s very serious.”
Deaths and travel disruption
The man in his 20s was pronounced dead after the car he was driving collided with a fallen tree in north London on Sunday. The incident occurred several hours after the 60-year-old man from Dumfries and Galloway was killed.
Travel disruption continued on Monday, and some schools in Scotland were closed because of the storm.
Five primary schools in Aberdeenshire were closed because of a power outage. Elon Academy was also closed after suffering damage caused by the storm.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk