GALE force winds have once again left tens of thousands of people across the region without electricity.

Storm Malik has brought windspeeds of up to 75mph to the North-East, far higher than forecast, toppling trees and bringing down power cables.

Northern Powergrid said 78,000 homes across County Durham and Northumberland had been affected since 4am on Saturday morning.

The network operator is currently responding to more than 380 concurrent instances of damage, which will require repair.

Read more: See the widespread disruption caused by Storm Malik in our live blog 

As of 4pm on Saturday, around 30,000 households are still off-grid.

Northern Powergrid engineers are restoring power remotely wherever possible, but continued gale force winds mean it is currently unsafe for teams to climb and repair damage to overhead power lines by fallen trees and flying debris.

The company is assessing damage to enable customer updates and coordinating repairs where it is safe to do so and teams are being mobilised from across the areas to the worst affected locations.

Customer support vehicles have been deployed to Wooler and Rothbury and welfare support arrangements are being coordinated to support customers.

As a result of the ongoing situation, Northern Powergrid expects that some customers could be off supply for the majority of the weekend.

Wherever possible, Northern Powergrid engineers will continue to switch electricity through alternative routes on its network to get customers back on supply.

Northern Powergrid’s director, Paul Glendinning, said: “Storm Malik is causing disruption to our network and the gale force winds are expected to continue across the weekend.

“Our engineers continue to do everything possible to assess the scale of the damage and prioritise the repairs required.

“We have all our resources in place and our priority is to deal with emergency situations, support our customers and ensure our people can work safely as soon as the conditions allow.

“Our contact centre is very busy but our teams are answering calls as quickly as possible.

“We’ve introduced a queue system on our website to help respond to customer demand and we will be ensuring our power cut map will be updated as more information becomes available about estimated restoration times for customers’ power supplies.

“Updates will also be provided on our social media channels which we encourage customers to share.”

In November Storm Arwen, with windspeeds of up to 100 mph, caused power cuts in 240,000 properties leaving some without energy for up to 13 days.

Mr Glendinning said: “Storm Malik, whilst not at the scale of Arwen, has hit the region harder than was first forecast.

“We have mobilised our customer support vehicles immediately to ensure we have welfare arrangements in place and we are keeping local resilience partners informed of the communities worst affected as a result of Storm Malik.

“We thank our customers for their patience and would like to reassure them that we are doing all we can to provide updates about when we will be able to get their power safely back on.”

Customers who are medically dependant on electricity, should use our emergency contact options when calling 105.

Northern Powergrid is warning local people who spot any damaged cables or equipment not to approach the area as equipment may still be live and pose a risk of electrocution.

Customers must contact the company immediately by calling 105.

Power cut advice and tips include:

• turn off electrical appliances at the socket (this is particularly important for heating or cooking appliances as your power could be restored at any time and potentially cause a safety hazard)

• keep one light switched on so you know when power is restored

• keep a battery or wind-up torch handy – they’re much safer than candles

• bookmark Northern Powergrid’s online power cut reporting service on your mobile devices – www.northernpowergrid.com/power-cuts and add 105, the free power cut, to mobile phone contact details

• have a charged mobile phone with important numbers, including Northern Powergrid’s contact details, easily accessible.

• check on your elderly or sick neighbours and relatives

• ensure you have warm clothing and blankets handy and some food and drink in your home that does not require electricity to heat or prepare it

• only call 999 in the event of an emergency.

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