On the BBC website national news the severe weather situation report is tempered with "delight"

Snow brings disruption - and delight

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-59452499

You have to go to the regional pages to get closer the real picture

Storm Arwen: Thousands across England remain without power

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-59450984

 

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Power just back on here in Aboyne after nearly 60 hours!

Pretty miserable with even our modern house like an icebox now, as snow has lain since Friday night.

Life just ground to a halt - no mobile phones nor landlines, no heating - nothing. Local shops including the Co-op supermarket were closed so no way to top up dwindling food supplies - we are sick of cold sandwiches! And of course all the food in the freezer has defrosted and will have to be discarded.

At least I could keep the beers cold out the back door in the snow....

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https://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2021-11-29/thousands-without-electricity-and-heating-after-storm-arwen-damage 

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Power went off again in many places around Kendal in South Lakes this afternoon and is not expected to be back until 4pm Thursday. It looks like there has been a major failure somewhere. Some people only had their power restored yesterday evening. Its getting really serious and possibly life threatening for so many people.

As Crepuscular Ray says, imagine if this was happening in London, COBRA would be meeting it would be headline news and the army would be brought in.

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Hi Kate

 

That’s not good. I hope you and your neighbours can cope.

There was a news item about people in Aberdeenshire being without power for, I think, 5 days now - but no mention of continuing issues elsewhere.

We had a power outage for 9 hours last Monday and that was a nightmare, with no heating and no means of making a hot drink. Apparently we’d been running off a stand-by generator because they had been replacing some power lines and it failed; twice.  But that was only 9 hours; I can’t imagine being without for days.

 

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For comparison, in Oct 1987 after the Great Storm, in mid-Kent (only 50 miles from Westminster) we were without water for 2 days and without power for 4. But that was much more easily survivable because it was mild - it must be really grim with temps below freezing. I don't remember COBRA meetings but of course we couldn't receive TV and radio, battery-operated systems being much less common then. 

Moral is that even UK weather can be violent and with a widespread emergency like Arwen and the Great Storm, you need to count on being self-sufficient for 4 or 5 days. There's just too much to do for instant restoration of services to everyone.

(incidentally, we also had a tree on top of the house, both my wrists in plaster after M/C accident, and Rhoda with an eyepatch after an operation - things go in threes, they say)

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I grew up in West Sussex and was 8 in 1987 and after the Hurricane we didn't have power for a week. As an 8 year old boy it was quite exciting but I remember my parents being thoroughly pi#sed off by the end. 

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Friends of mine near Kendal are still without power for the 8th night. They are pretty self sufficient and have a generator and solar panels, but the genny won't run the cooker or the air source heat pump, so they are getting pretty desperate. They have three small sons at home too as the primary school is shut because it also has no power.

 

Meanwhile we have had intermittent power cuts and surges which appears to have b*ggered our air source heat pump. So the house is absolutely freezing. 

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That’s dreadful.  I hope you can get it fixed quickly - and then make a claim on the power company.  I know it’s difficult for them when masses of poles and lines are down but an unreliable power supply is woeful.  As for a week without any power; that is beyond awful.

 

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There was a report on LBC this morning saying they hope to reconnect everyone by Christmas. I was astonished TBH.

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I'm not.  Rural wooded areas with poles are a total nightmare, you can lose literally miles of overheads and you have to clear all the fallen trees before you can start repairing the lines. .... or even get to them !!

Not a good advert for the "great electrical future" that was being touted at COP a  couple of weeks ago. 

 

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I’ve just been to the local Forestry Commission forest to collect a Christmas tree and the number of large trees felled by the wind is sobering and rather sad.

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