Hundreds of engineers are carrying out mass repair work on Cumbria’s power network following heavy snow which damaged miles of overhead lines.

Engineers from Electricity North West made significant progress overnight restoring power to a further 700 properties and has now reconnected more than 13,000 in total following the extreme weather.

Conditions have remained extremely difficult for those without power and for engineers who are working to restore it. Whilst main roads throughout the county have started to clear, many side streets and rural roads remain impassable.

Electricity North West is providing updates to customers and working with emergency responders to get access to those still affected. Teams have made thousands of proactive calls to customers over the weekend providing help and support while power is being restored.

More than 35 separate damages have been reported on the network with several consecutive spans of overhead line brought down which all need repairing before power can be fully restored.

Stephanie Trubshaw, Electricity North West’s customer director, said: “Our teams are continuing to battle difficult conditions and are facing a significant engineering challenge to carry out mass repair work. At the same time we’re making sure we’re doing everything we can to contact those still affected to provide support.

“We’ve made good progress overnight restoring power to a further 700 properties and teams left our local depots this morning and we’ve got all outstanding incidents resourced.

“Whilst the main roads have cleared, more rural areas are still problematic with some roads still impassable. We’ll be working around the clock and doing everything we can to get power back to the remaining 800 customers today.”

The power network operator continues to liaise with the Cumbria’s Local Resilience Forum as multiple agencies have already responded to the incident.

A helicopter will again be used today, weather permitting, to identify any other problem areas across the county whether that be blocked roads or damage to the network.

Electricity North West is also working with catering outlets to help provide food outlets to those impacted by the power outages. These can be found:

• Greenodd Service Station - Ulverston LA12 7RE - serving hot food from 8.30am

“We’re putting our customers at the centre of our response,” added Stephanie.

“We know this has been an extremely difficult period and we’re focusing our efforts on making contact with everyone affected to ensure they are safe, while our teams on the ground continue repairs.

“Customers can also speak directly with our contact centre by calling 105 if they need any additional support.”

If you see lines down, stay well clear as they may still be live and report them to Electricity North West on 105 as soon as possible so that engineers can make the area safe.