Aftermath of Storm Arwen across the North East

Alnwick Town FC's clubhouse severely damaged; power still off for thousands; and transport issues continue

Storm damage at Alnwick Town football club
Author: Kat WrightPublished 28th Nov 2021
Last updated 28th Nov 2021

The impact of Storm Arwen continues to be felt across the North East - with tens of thousands of homes still without power and a lower league football club very badly damaged.

Alnwick Town FC have shared pictures of its clubhouse - used by senior and junior teams - on Twitter:

Northern Powergrid is continuing to restore electricity to tens of thousands of homes. By late last night (Sat), they'd restored power to 182,000 of the 240,000 customers affected. Many have been off for two night. Blocked roads and power lines brought down by the storm have affected how quickly they've been able to restore supplies.

The Met Office says the highest wind speeds hit 98mph at Brizlee Wood in Northumberland.

Storm Arwen is also continuing to affect rail services north of Newcastle. There are no east coast mainline services running north of the city - to Edinburgh. Some services to Glasgow are also affected.

But there's good news for people hoping to travel on the North Pole Express from Tanfield Railway. It wasn't looking good at the "world's oldest railway" near Beamish yesterday - but volunteers have managed to clear the tracks and rebuild their Christmas displays to get back up and running.

Over the weekend three people were killed by falling trees as Storm Arwen brought gusts of almost 100mph.

Police Scotland said a 35-year-old man died when his pick-up truck was struck by a falling tree in Aberdeenshire.

Cumbria Police said a man from Lancaster died in Ambleside after a tree fell on him.

In Northern Ireland, a man was killed when his car was hit by a falling tree in County Antrim.

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