Storm Arwen victims deserve better than this as 30,000 homes still without power – The Yorkshire Post says

IT is indicative of Storm Arwen’s ferocity that 30,000 homes across the North remain without power five days after 100mph-plus winds, coupled with snow, rain and ice, disrupted electricity supplies.
Thousands of homes are still without power nearly a week after Storm Arwen hit the North.Thousands of homes are still without power nearly a week after Storm Arwen hit the North.
Thousands of homes are still without power nearly a week after Storm Arwen hit the North.

As Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told Parliament, wind speeds on this scale have only been recorded twice in the past 25 years and the worst damage was in remote and hard-to-reach rural areas.

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The Cabinet Minister was also sincere when he said that the overwhelming majority of affected homes will have power restored “in the next day or so” and details will be shared with relevant MPs.

Thousands of homes are still without power nearly a week after Storm Arwen hit the North.Thousands of homes are still without power nearly a week after Storm Arwen hit the North.
Thousands of homes are still without power nearly a week after Storm Arwen hit the North.

But it should not have taken until Wednesday for MPs to be briefed – the Government should have done so on Monday when backbenchers first highlighted the plight of victims, the absence of up-to-date information and how NHS staff were delivering Covid vaccines in North Yorkshire by candlelight.

And while the scale of damage could not have been foreseen, lessons do not appear to have been learned from previous weather incidents when reassurances were given that communications would improve.

For so many vulnerable people to be left without electricity and water in appalling weather is bad enough; to then be kept in the dark about the restoration of supplies, and contingency arrangements like deploying the Army, compounds the misery and is symptomatic of a government that overlooks the needs of rural residents.

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After all, Downing Street’s Cobra emergency committee would have met on countless occasions if a similar number of homes in urban areas were without power for so long.

Thousands of homes are still without power nearly a week after Storm Arwen hit the North.Thousands of homes are still without power nearly a week after Storm Arwen hit the North.
Thousands of homes are still without power nearly a week after Storm Arwen hit the North.

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