Over 40,000 homes lose power again

Engineers from Electricity North West had restored power to all but 300 customers this morning after floodwater breached flood defences at Lancaster's main substation just before 23:00 on Saturday, cutting power to 55,000 properties.

But power has been lost again and engineers are still onsite and are investigating the cause of the outage and will update customers as soon as possible say Electricity North West.

Mark Williamson, operations director for Electricity North West, said: “Unfortunately power has been lost to customers in Lancaster and surrounding areas.

“We are onsite and investigating the cause and we will update customers as soon as we find out more and again we would like to thank our customers for their patience and support during what continues to be an enormously challenging time for everyone involved.”

2,657 properties remain without power in Cumbria, where floodwater is restricting access for Electricity North West teams.

Flood defences at Kendal and Carlisle substations have held, protecting supplies to 110,000 homes.

Vulnerable customers, including some older or disabled people, or those with a medical dependency on electricity, can also sign up to the Priority Services Register by visiting www.enwl.co.uk/priority or contacting Electricity North West on0800 195 4141.

For updates please visit @ElectricityNW, visit www.enwl.co.uk or call 0800 195 4141.