Storms Malik and Corrie: Final homes to have power reconnected

There were reports of a number of fallen trees across the North East

The final few homes hit by power cuts caused by storms are due to be reconnected, an energy firm has said.

About 97,000 homes in Northumberland and County Durham suffered power cuts caused by Storm Malik on Saturday and Storm Corrie on Sunday.

As of 23:00 GMT on Monday, Northern Powergrid said "99.9%" had been reconnected but 61 remained cut off.

All homes hit by power cuts in Cumbria have been reconnected, Electricity North West said.

Northern Powergrid said the final reconnections in the North East would be completed "as soon as possible" on Tuesday.

Director of field operations Andy Bilclough said teams had "got through a phenomenal amount of work" on Monday including reconnecting 17,000 properties hit by Storm Corrie.

High winds in the wake of the storms on Monday continued to generate big waves at places like Seaham

He said "difficult site conditions" meant some properties remained without power into Tuesday while they had also arranged with some homeowners to complete the work in the morning rather than have to go into properties during the night.

Winds of up to 93mph brought down hundreds of trees and caused damage and disruption to power lines, properties and vehicles.

Durham County Council said its teams had been out clearing debris from roads and aimed to have all routes reopen by Tuesday.

The Tyne and Wear Metro between Benton and Monkseaton remained closed going into Tuesday because of storm damage.