Electricity North West has made good progress in difficult and cold conditions today, restoring power to another 5,000 properties this afternoon taking the number restored since Friday to 77,000.

11,000 remain without power with many expected to be off overnight.

Steph Trubshaw, Incident Manager, said: “Speaking with our frontline teams and hearing what people are going through is driving us to continue our repairs to the network as quickly as possible. We still have more than 100 separate issues on the network spread over a vast area and we won’t stop until we have restored every last property.”

Repairs to the network include removing trees from lines, and repairing broken lines and poles that have been damaged by flying debris and falling trees.

Anyone without power now should prepare to be without power overnight.

Steph Trubshaw added: “This is a really difficult situation for everyone, please do try to keep warm and keep trying to get through to us if you need us. We are prioritising calls and call backs to those who are in most need. We’re continuing to work with the emergency services and other agencies to provide support where we can.

“In some areas we have been able to provide food vans and other support but due to the vast scale of this incident getting to everyone just isn’t possible so we ask people to bear with us and check on their neighbours to provide support locally. I assure you we are doing all we can and are continuing to work tirelessly to repair every damaged part of the network to restore power.”

Customers are advised to check the website and social media for updates and advice, and only call 105 if the issue is urgent to help prioritise those who need help most, or to report dangerous situations such as fallen lines.