Storm Darragh

Bradsmum said:
I’m in Ceredigion near Tregaron. Today we have finally seen the National Grid teams and there are rumours that we could have power tonight 🤞🏻. Apparently this is the worst storm that has hit this area for 60 years 😬. I too remember the ‘87 storm and the blackouts of ‘74 but as a child they didn’t really affect me but no doubt my parents struggled to feed us and keep a fire burning. Anyway hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer.
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You're only a few miles from me. I hope you've got power again now, we've had power again since Tuesday but many of the more outlying houses and hamlets are still waiting. A food welfare van is now parked up in the village, arranged by the National Grid, giving out free hot meals..well...hot drinks, burgers and chips, operating 10 am to 10 pm. I'm not sure how those still disconnected from the rest of the world with no power and internet will know it's there though. The magical Cwm Cych valley road is still blocked, dozens and dozens of trees down, it's quite destroyed. We reported the fallen tree blocking the lane outside our house just after the storm and ended up getting the chain saw out and moving it ourselves, 3 days later the council guys turned up to move it, they said they'd only got the report through that morning, goes to show how behind everything is.
 
Starting to sort out damage from the storm .The land drain is a major fix as water from it was starting to get close to the house.Mr fix it has had to dig it out as it just wasn't dealing with the water and was badly cracked so has dug a massive trench the entire length of the garden to pipe the surface water away from the house..A couple of heavy gate posts have cracked in the wind so he is replacing those and also sorting out slates on the corners of the roof which have moved around.
There is always more damage then you first find.
 
There was a case reported on the BBC News about a man who tried to claim storm damage to his chimney pot from house insurance, but it was declined as they only had reported winds of 53mph in his area, and it needed to be over 55mph. I suppose someone always has to be just under the limit.
 
Tarragon said:
There was a case reported on the BBC News about a man who tried to claim storm damage to his chimney pot from house insurance, but it was declined as they only had reported winds of 53mph in his area, and it needed to be over 55mph. I suppose someone always has to be just under the limit.
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Tbf, after the adverse publicity the insurance company decided that it was wiser to just pay up.

It can pay to take your grievances to the media.
 
Yay we got power back on Wednesday night. Oh the relief of flicking a switch and having light and being able to boil the kettle and the boiler working for hot water and heating. Just bliss! National Grid came to the door to check that all was good and I said a very big heartfelt thank you to him. We still do not have landline or Wi-Fi and latest is that could be until 18th, inconvenient but we’ll manage 🤪.
 
Bradsmum said:
Yay we got power back on Wednesday night. Oh the relief of flicking a switch and having light and being able to boil the kettle and the boiler working for hot water and heating. Just bliss! National Grid came to the door to check that all was good and I said a very big heartfelt thank you to him. We still do not have landline or Wi-Fi and latest is that could be until 18th, inconvenient but we’ll manage 🤪.
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Glad you got your power back We have now lost telephone and WiFi again (on Friday)
Work on the drainage has finished and he has been as careful as he can not to destroy the whole lawn .Will have to re seed in the spring.
Broken damaged gate hanging posts will be replaced today .When he went up to assess the slates on the roof there is also damage to the facia and the guttering as so he will be sorting that out fairly urgently as least we aren't fighting back water coming into the utility room now.
I guess there is always more damage discovered as you check.
 
Our electric finally came back on on Friday afternoon. 1 week we had no electric, lost 3 freezers full of food and had no heating as we need electric to run the oil fired boiler and pump. We got so cold and damp in the end I had to buy a generator.. I've put a claim in for the food and I am going to claim for the generator too..
 
cremedemonthe said:
Our electric finally came back on on Friday afternoon. 1 week we had no electric, lost 3 freezers full of food and had no heating as we need electric to run the oil fired boiler and pump. We got so cold and damp in the end I had to buy a generator.. I've put a claim in for the food and I am going to claim for the generator too..
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Glad you got electric back finally!
We bought a small generator after 2 weeks without power in the great storm in 1987. it runs the fridge and freezer recharges all the d vices and runs the trimmer for the boiler.We use it rarely but you'll be glad of it in the future.
I'm sure you'll get the food paid and hopefully the generator they really can't expect you to manage with nothing!
At worse they may pay a proportion of it
In 1987 we had damage to a window which had some rot in it and already needed to be replaced and they paid half towards it.
 
setterlover said:
Glad you got electric back finally!
We bought a small generator after 2 weeks without power in the great storm in 1987. it runs the fridge and freezer recharges all the d vices and runs the trimmer for the boiler.We use it rarely but you'll be glad of it in the future.
I'm sure you'll get the food paid and hopefully the generator they really can't expect you to manage with nothing!
At worse they may pay a proportion of it
In 1987 we had damage to a window which had some rot in it and already needed to be replaced and they paid half towards it.
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I hope so, we had to have electricity for not only the heating and fridge/freezer but also for the electric fence to protect all our livestock, it would take just one fox to suss out it wasn't on and could possibly scale the fence and wipe out all of our flocks. We have spent too much time selective breeding over 10 years to lose it all and why the generator was a necessity. I certainly wouldn't have bought one otherwise.
 
cremedemonthe said:
Our electric finally came back on on Friday afternoon. 1 week we had no electric, lost 3 freezers full of food and had no heating as we need electric to run the oil fired boiler and pump. We got so cold and damp in the end I had to buy a generator.. I've put a claim in for the food and I am going to claim for the generator too..
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It was the cold that got me too (and the lack of water due to the pump to the well being electric).
I didn't realise how much hot drinks and hot food contributed to your ability to keep warm.
I think it was actually warmer outside. We were only 5 days so some of the freezer stuff is just about salvageable.

I'm also buying a generator - if it had had coincided with really cold weather, like the -14 we had in previous years, we would have been in trouble.
 
Bradsmum said:
I’m in Ceredigion near Tregaron. Today we have finally seen the National Grid teams and there are rumours that we could have power tonight 🤞🏻. Apparently this is the worst storm that has hit this area for 60 years 😬. I too remember the ‘87 storm and the blackouts of ‘74 but as a child they didn’t really affect me but no doubt my parents struggled to feed us and keep a fire burning. Anyway hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer.
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I'm not far from Tregaron, our electric went in the early hours of Saturday and didn't come back until Wednesday evening, we lost our phone line which was finally fixed today so finally have internet!
 
The very busy port of Holyhead on Anglesey is now to remain closed til at least January 15 after damage suffered in Storm Darragh 😬. This is causing major disruption and economic loss.

Storm-hit port closed until at least 15 January https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx27932exg7o

On average, two million passengers use Holyhead a year and about 1,200 lorries and trailers make the crossing every day. Four daily ferry sailings travel each way between Holyhead and Dublin, operated by Stena Line and Irish Ferries.
 
The winds are getting stronger here so hoping there is no more damage .
The trashed garden fence is taking another battering but no sense doing anything until the new panels arrive early next week. Just collecting up the pieces as they come off!!
Will start removal of the fence at the weekend if we get a couple of dry quiet days .
Still no landline or WiFi/internet supposed to be back late tomorrow.
Hoping to get straight before we go away mid January.
It seems never ending at the moment.
 
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