Rural communities in mid Wales are still without power as a result of Storm Arwen.
Four days after the first major storm of the season on Friday night, a number of rural areas throughout Powys and Shropshire remain without power.
Towns and villages such as Llanrhaeadr, Llanymynech and Kinnerley have reported widespread outages.
Energy companies said power cuts affected tens of thousands of homes across Wales. Western Power Distribution said homes in mid Wales had been affected, and SP Energy Networks reported thousands of households across north Wales, Powys and Ceredigion were affected.
While many areas throughout Wales have had their power restored, more remote villages have continued to experience outages for multiple days after Storm Arwen first touched down.
A spokesperson from SP Energy Networks said: “We apologise to all customers who have been affected by the damage, we understand the inconvenience this has caused many households and we appreciate everyone’s patience whilst we continue to try and resolve the ongoing issues.
“In many areas, the damage has been severe due to fallen trees and other wind-blown debris and engineers are also dealing with road closures and access challenges making some of our repairs even harder.
“We’re continuing to keep our customers up to date with our progress. We’re keeping in touch with our most vulnerable customers throughout the day, ensuring they are updated with our progress, organising hot food and drinks and providing other welfare services for them as needed.”
The situation has prompted the Welsh Liberal Democrats to demand the UK Government provide support to rural communities left without power.
In a letter to UK ministers, Welsh Party Leader Jane Dodds MS and Liberal Democrat Rural Affairs Spokesperson Tim Farron MP said that rural communities are “being taken for granted” and “abandoned by the government in their time of need”.
The letter calls for ministers to step in and provide food, accommodation and supplies to vulnerable people impacted by the storm, as well as emergency generators to provide electricity for areas affected by prolonged power cuts.
The party also called for new rules requiring electricity companies to prioritise investing some of their profits into local power networks to help prevent outages in the future.
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