THOUSANDS of people across the North East still have no electricity after power cuts across the region caused by gale force winds of up to 80mph.

Northern Powergrid said around 80,000 customers were affected by Storm Malik and up to 16,000 customers in County Durham and Northumberland remain 'off-grid'.

It is unclear when they will all be reconnected to the grid as more high winds are forecast this evening with the arrival of Storm Corrie.

Read more: Roof torn from home as Storm Malik hits

Northern Powergrid director Paul Glendinning, said: “We have successfully restored supplies to more than 60,000 customers but given the amount of work that there is to do and the fact that we are expecting more high winds during Sunday afternoon, we think that it is likely that a relatively small proportion of our customers will remain without power beyond Sunday night.”

Any domestic Northern Powergrid customer still off supply from 8am today is entitled to claim costs for food of up to £15 per person per meal.

Anyone not reconnected by 2pm can claim 'reasonable costs' for alternative accommodation.

Claimants are asked keep receipts and send them in an e-mail, including an outline of  the claim, to: stormmalikclaims@nothernpowergrid.com.

Andy Bilclough, Northern Powergrid’s director of field operations, said: “We still have a lot to do but we have a large team out there now in what are currently perfect conditions for the kind of work we do.

“Storm Corrie is a concern but we’re going to get as much done as we can today for as long as it is safe to do so.”

Road closures, fallen trees and overturned lorries caused chaos yesterday and a major incident was declared by the local resilience forum led by Durham County Council.

The council tweeted: “We are continuing our clean-up efforts following the impact of StormMalik.

“Our teams are out again today clearing blocked roads, footpaths, and debris to keep our county open.”

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for wind across the region from Sunday evening into Monday morning.

It states that “flying debris is likely and could lead to injuries or danger to life” while there may be some damage to trees and buildings, which could include tiles that have blown from roofs.

The Met Office said: “Storm Corrie will bring a spell of very windy weather later today and during Monday morning, particularly across northern parts of the UK.

“Damaging winds are likely to lead to travel disruption in places.”

Storm Corrie will likely cause some travel disruption and generate some “large and dangerous waves around the coasts”, the forecasters add.

A nine-year-old boy and a 60-year-old woman were killed as trees were torn down in dangerous gusts on Saturday.

Staffordshire Police said a man is in hospital after the incident which killed the boy.

Police were called to Hollington Road, Winnothdale, near to Tean, at 1pm on Saturday after reports that a tree had fallen on a boy and a man, and they were both taken to the Royal Stoke University Hospital.

The boy’s death came after a 60-year-old woman was killed by a falling tree in Aberdeen.

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