LONDON, 20 February 2022, (TON): Nearly 200,000 British homes are still without power after Storm Eunice left a deadly trail across Europe and left transport networks in disarray.

The fierce Atlantic storm brought record winds of up to 196km/h (122 mph) to the United Kingdom, killing at least four people and causing widespread disruption.

At least six more deaths were reported in Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The UK Business and Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said power had been restored to 1.2 million households but 190,000 customers remained without supply. Earlier, the UK’s Energy Networks Association said that at 7:30GMT about 226,000 customers were without power, mostly across southern England but also in the east of the country and southern Wales.

“Strong winds across southern England are impacting restoration efforts,” Kwarteng said.

He added “we expect most customers to have supplies restored promptly.”

Nearly one million homes lost power in November when a storm hit northeast England and eastern Scotland. While power was restored to the vast majority of homes within 48 hours, more than 3,000 households did not regain access to mains power for a week or more, prompting the government to order a review of utility firms’ preparedness.