More than 100,000 homes lost their electricity supply in Britain on Tuesday as storms of up to 90 miles-per-hour uprooted trees which knocked out transmission lines and flying debris damaged power infrastructure, electricity suppliers said.
SSE Power Distribution, which supplies electricity in Scotland and southern England, said 63,000 customers were disconnected from the power system on Tuesday, while 40,000 customers at Scottish Power Energy Networks in Scotland and north-west England were also without electricity.
"The biggest issue affecting the electricity network has been uprooted trees and other debris blown on to overhead power lines, which has caused damage and brought down the power lines in some areas," a spokesman for Scottish Power said. "The winds have also caused structural damage and closed many roads, making it hard for engineers to access faults."
Other power network operators in England also said customers were cut off on Tuesday, but transmission was restored in the afternoon and the number of customers affected was smaller than in Scotland. SSE and Scottish Power said they had mobilised around 1,000 engineers to tackle the supply cuts, but strong winds made it dangerous for workers to get to problem zones in certain areas.