East of England Power Networks teams, including in Bury St Edmunds and Risby, head north to help restore power after Storm Éowyn

UK Power Networks’ teams from the East of England ventured up north to help restore power after Storm Éowyn.

A total of 164 specialist staff and 50 generators were dispatched to Scotland and Northern Ireland over the weekend as the northern region was hit with destructive 100mph winds — blowing debris and trees onto power lines, making roads impassable and cutting off power supplies to hundreds of thousands of people.

In support of the national effort, overhead line teams from Bury St Edmunds and Risby, alongside teams from Norfolk, Essex, and tree-cutting crews from across the South East and East of England, were deployed to the hardest-hit areas.

Steve McDonald, director of field operations at Northern Powergrid, said: “Our teams have been working hard to repair the damage to the network across the North East, Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire and we’re grateful to our colleagues at UK Power Networks for their additional support.

“Once we have repaired the damage in our region, we will continue to collaborate with our industry colleagues to support the effort across the UK in getting the power back on for people affected.”

Travis Clark, a UK Power Networks manager based in Stevenage, said: “Some of the teams are working in mountainous areas and others are in boggy terrain working in challenging environments at times.

“They are assessing and planning each job, working safely with local teams to get plant and machinery into place for repairs.

“We are finding an awful lot of trees down across roads and we’re clearing the way into sites for repairs.

“There are a lot of power lines down and there’s significant damage to the main transmission network as well as the 11,000-volt local networks, which we’re helping with.

“It’s going to take time, but everyone is working together well. The industry is pulling together to reconnect supplies as quickly as possible.

“At the ferry terminal a stranger shook my hand and thanked us for coming over to help.”