HUNDREDS of people spent yesterday without electricity following Wednesday night's violent storms.

Northern Electric reported more than 500 lightning strikes in the North-East and North Yorkshire, some of which hit overhead power lines and damaged the equipment.

In Harrogate, North Yorkshire, one house was wrecked by a lightning strike. The bolt destroyed part of the roof and blew out electrics and plasterboard walls.

The bungalow, in Oatlands Drive, is home to a family of four. All were inside when the lightning struck, but no one was injured.

Most of the 114,000 homes and businesses that had power cut off were reconnected by early yesterday morning.

However, by mid-afternoon, 491 customers were still without electricity, mostly in the Middleton-in-Teesdale and Barnard Castle areas.

A spokesperson for Northern Electric said: "Staff will continue to work as quickly as possible until electricity is restored to all of our customers."

Parts of the region were also put on flood alert by the Environment Agency, which warned people to be on their guard as more rain is on the way.

Flood Watches were issued for Tyne and Wear, including Durham, the north Pennines and north and east North-umberland.

An agency spokeswoman said: "The Flood Watches are a message to people to be prepared. There is more rain forecast and, while we have not got the incident room open at the moment, we are monitoring the situation very closely."