29 October 2002 00:00 Storm update from EME (1300hrs)

East Midlands engineers and colleagues from other areas are continuing to battle to restore customers who in the region who have been left without power.

Teams from Viridian in Northern Ireland and from Northern Electricity have joined EME's own engineers out in the field and are currently tackling the remaining problems caused by Sunday''s gale force winds. The external teams have been busy up until now working on problems in their own areas but have now been brought in to help out in the East Midlands.

A total of 216,000 customers have been affected during the gale force winds but EME engineers have successfully brought 201,000 homes and businesses back on line as at 1300hrs.

Bob Taylor, EME's Managing Director, said: "I can assure all our customers that we''re working as hard as we can to get everyone back on as quickly - and as safely - as we can."

EME's teams have so far repaired around 1,000 faults but there are still hundreds more to be dealt with, with the main cause being flying debris and fallen trees and electricity poles.

The latest figures by county are shown below:

Customers currently without power
Customers restored

Derbyshire 2,059 31,222
Leicestershire & Rutland 895 32,316
Coventry & Warwickshire 2,017 33,665
Nottinghamshire 125 11,671
Northamptonshire 5,711 43,646
Lincolnshire 4,887 48,398

To report damage or danger people should ring 0800 056 8090.