Storm: Gales bring down power lines (From The Oxford Times)

Storm: Gales bring down power lines

8:13am Friday 19th January 2007

• Print
• Email
• Share

MORE than 5,000 homes, mainly in south Oxfordshire, were still without power today following yesterday's high winds.

But engineers working to restore power made sure that the majority of homes and businesses had their electricity back on by 8.30am, with only 600 homes in Bicester, Carterton and Berinsfield, near Wallingford, still affected.

Des Kirby, a spokesman for Southern Electric, said: "A lot of individual properties have suffered damage, and we are advising residents to avoid overhead power lines that have come down, as they may still be live."

Thousands of homes, schools, and businesses in south Oxfordshire were left without power as winds of up to 70mph battered the area yesterday.

Seven thousand homes in parts of Didcot, Milton, Steventon, Harwell, Drayton Sutton Courtenay lost power at about 8am when a tree fell on an electricity line.

A further 8,000 homes in Oxfordshire, mainly in Bicester and Wantage lost power as high winds brought down trees on to cables, or caused cables to crash into each other.

Southern Electric had brought 20 additional engineers from Scotland to cope with anticipated problems and a further 60 were on their way to the county last night.

At Milton Park workers arrived yesterday to find the power was down. Tony Longstaff, managing director of Milton Park, said 160 of the 165 businesses at the site had been affected. Power was restored at noon, but some firms had sent staff home by then.

He added: "Where electricity is critical, businesses would have standby generators."

But Nick and Moon Amin, who run Premier Stores on the park, did not let the blackout stop them serving customers.

Freezers, fridges and tills were out of action, but the couple carried on in the darkness.

Creation Hair Studio, at Milton Park, cancelled all its bookings - but one client did get a new style against the odds.

Trainee stylist Daniel Grant, who is studying at Introtrain Hairdressing College, had already started an assessment and was determined not to let the blackout stop him.

He said: "Trying to do the assessment in the dark does make it harder, especially when the client has dark hair."

Southern Electric spokesman Julian Reeves said 45,000 homes in central southern England had suffered power cuts.

He added: "The high winds made it dangerous for our staff to climb and repair overhead lines."

Storm brings chaos to county. Click here for full story.

• Print
• Email
• Share