Around 300 households across Jersey were left without power last night as Storm Goretti damaged parts of the island’s electricity network.
Jersey Electricity reported 31 separate incident of damage, largely as a result of falling trees bringing down overhead power lines.
Many of those affected were in St Ouen, with the outage beginning in the western parish at around 5.30pm last night and continuing for hours.
Jersey Electricity was forced to shut off power to a damaged line for safety reasons while engineers worked in difficult conditions to make repairs.
As gusts intensified, officials moved to reassure residents that the St Ouen parish hall could be opened as a place of refuge if needed.
Constable Richard Honeycombe recalled that there had been issues with an overhead cable that had been “sparking”, but noted the “fantastic effort” from Jersey Electricity which had worked to restore power to affected properties.
Crews from the utility company were out this morning to assess damage and working to restore power where outages have occurred.
“We recognise how difficult and frustrating it can be to be without electricity and want to reassure customers that we are doing everything possible to restore supplies as quickly and safely as conditions allow,” a Jersey Electricity spokesperson said.
Islanders were urged to stay well clear of any damaged power infrastructure and to report electrical hazards immediately by calling Jersey Electricity’s emergency line on 01534 505050.
Vulnerable customers without power are asked to contact the customer care team on 01534 505460.