STORM EUNICE: Services getting back to normal
The clean-up operation is well underway
Wiltshire Council say they had 600 reports about fallen trees as a result of Storm Eunice, through their My Wiltshire website.
They've said their teams are getting those cleared as quickly as they can - but warn it might take until the early part of next week to get everything done.
But there is some good news about other Wiltshire Council services, with most open as usual for today (Saturday 19th February).
That will include:
- Household recycling centres
- Libraries
- Leisure centres
- Salisbury's Charter Market will also be going ahead as normal.
There's also been a thank you from Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue for the support we've shown them during the storm.
Between 8.00am and 5.30pm on Friday (18th February), their Fire Control room took 300 emergency calls, mostly about fallen trees, power cables down and damage to buildings.
The service attended 12 Storm Eunice related incidents throughout the day.
Group Manager Wayne Jones said:
“Firefighters can only help when people are in danger, or electrics are involved and creating a potential fire hazard. Also, if our operators are answering 999 calls for things where we can’t help, that could delay a response to a call where the situation is life-threatening. Although there has been an exceptionally high number of calls received today, we do believe that people have heeded our requests and we thank them for it.
"Although the worst of the weather has hopefully passed, we would still urge people to please consider whether there is a genuine danger before calling 999; fallen trees should be reported to the local authority, and damage to your home is something that needs to be resolved with a contractor and your insurance.”
On the trains, South Western Railway say there's a chance of some further disruption to services throughout the weekend.
They've also said that passengers with tickets that were booked for Friday will still be able to use them:
Many homes across South Wiltshire and West Hampshire were affected by power cuts at the height of the storm.
Some services might take until 11.00pm tonight to be fully restored.
Richard Gough, Director of Distribution System Operations at SSEN, said:
“Storm Eunice looks like being the most significant storm to hit the south of England in decades. As the extreme winds have passed through our region, our teams are working carefully in these challenging conditions to assess network damage.
“I would like to thank customers for their patience and reassure them that, as the winds decrease, our teams will make every effort to repair our network and reconnect supplies as quickly and as safely as we can.
“Over 15,000 of our customers logged on to SSEN’s Power Track app yesterday – the largest number ever recorded. We encourage customers to report any network damage via the app or by calling 105 and keep a safe distance of any damaged equipment.”