Family left without power for 124 hours after Storm Darragh battered UK

A mum-of-two has said she faced ‘mental torture’ after being left without power for four days after Storm Darragh swept through the UK.

Martina Mercer, from Devon, claimed the National Grid promised to reconnect her and her family to power nine times over the last week, but failed to do so.

Martina, who lives with her children and their pets, which include dogs, cats, geese and chickens, said she received daily automated text messages from the power supplier saying her power would be restored within the next few hours, but it didn’t happen.

She said the blackout has drained them of thousands of pounds as a burst pipe flooded their home, leaving it damaged, and they have been forced to buy extra heaters to keep warm and power banks to charge their devices.

Despite being on National Grid’s Priority Services Register for vulnerable households, the electricity company took several days to reconnect them.

The National Grid said they offered for the family to stay in a hotel, however Martina said she was unable to leave her property as she needed to care for her animals and her son, who is autistic, refused to leave the house.

They were finally reconnected to power on Wednesday.

The 45-year-old told Metro: ‘It has been absolutely awful, I never want to live through it again.

‘It is a mental torture with this drip of information.

‘National Grid raise your hopes only to let you down again. It is really cruel.’

Martina’s home, which is located just outside of the village of Merton, was flooded after a frozen pipe burst, leaving a ‘hole in the ceiling and water coming through it.’

‘The office is flooded. I cannot do anything as they need electric to use tools to fix it, so I have to put up with water leaking,’ she said.

‘The Christmas funds are gone. We have no money for Christmas,’ said the PR consultant, who said she has been offered no compensation from the National Grid and has been forced to spend thousands on portable electronics and heaters in the last few days to keep the family warm.

She said she developed a chest infection from the ‘bitter’ cold and is trying to get better while caring for her son, who is autistic, and their pets.

She added her son, 24-year-old son Mitchell, who is asthmatic, ‘couldn’t get the care he needed without power’ as his nebuliser requires a plug to use it, leaving her concerned it will take a turn for the worse.

He has also lost the ‘lifeline’ of being able to chat to his friends online, who she says give him confidence and support.

Martina acknowledged other families are worse off after Storm Darragh, but said being drip fed information has made the power cut ‘so much worse’ as she did not realise she would be cut off for four days.

This means the family has been unable to make preparations for being without power while living in a remote area.

She was first told her house would regain electricity at 12.30pm on Saturday, the first day of the storm, only for it to be pushed back eight times.

On Monday, National Grid’s X account told them the power had been restored and all they needed to do was ‘turn all the trip switches off & back on again.’

The family tried this with no success, calling it a ‘cruel trick.’

National Grid said on Tuesday that 21,242 homes were without power across South Wales, the South West and West Midlands, with more than1,800,000 initially losing power over the weekend.

By Thursday afternoon, it said the vast majority of customers who lost power as a result of the storm have now been restored, and there are some pockets where customers remain without power and they have teams working ‘around the clock’ to get them restored as soon as possible.

A National Grid Electricity Distribution spokesperson said: ‘We understand that the loss of electricity due to Storm Darragh has caused problems for customers, including Ms Mercer, and apologise for the difficulty she and others have experienced during power cuts.

‘Following the storm, power was restored in the area at 2:18pm on Wednesday. We know losing power is hard and we have been working around the clock to reconnect properties as fast as we can.

‘We offered Ms Mercer and her family hotel accommodation during the power cut, and have since tried to contact her to discuss customer guarantee payments.’

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