A Doris day of destruction
STORM Doris wreaked havoc when she blew across Macclesfield, leaving thousands of homes without electricity.
A total of 2,700 homes lost power when gale force winds caused trees to fall and hit cables and power lines last Thursday morning.
Among the residents worst affected were 419 people in Poynton, where flying debris brought overhead lines down, and 219 in Chelford, where a fallen tree damaged a power line.
Water was cut off for most of the day for many properties on the Weston when a tree uprooted a water pipe and crashed into electricity cables as it fell.
A spokesman from United Utilities said they took longer than usual to repair a damaged water main because engineers had to wait until an electricity cable was made safe. He said: “Water was affected on the Weston when a tree came down.
“As it was coming down the roots ripped up the water main and in doing so it fell into the electricity cables, which meant we couldn’t go out on site to fix it until the electricity supply had been dealt with. It took almost a day to deal with but water was back on by 4.30pm.”
Kellie Mills, who lives in Macclesfield, braved the storm. She said: “I wasn’t scared of the storm at first until the howling that swirled around my house started, as if it was screaming, bins started flying towards the cars. I tried to go out with my daughter because I had to take my sick cat to the vets again to see if she was well enough to finally have her operation but I felt like the car was going to tip over at any second - then I was truly scared.”
The council’s highways department was forced to close a number of roads due to fallen trees and flooding, with 20 call outs in Macclesfield and more than 200 across Cheshire East. A 40ft oak tree fell across School Lane in Marton and a falling tree pulled an electrical cable down on London Road in Adlington.
Councillor David Brown, cabinet member for highways and infrastructure, praised officers.
He said: “The true test of a highways team is how they react when the going gets tough – as it did (on Thursday). I’m proud that our team of operatives and inspectors were able to completely stay on top of a rapidly-changing situation, including many colleagues, who worked long into the night.”
Inspector Catherine Mitchell, from Macclesfield police, said it was all hands to the deck when the force received more than 800 calls across the county. She said: “All officers – including those from CID and other units – came out to support our response. It was a real team effort. Our main problem in Macclesfield was fallen trees and branches. As far as we know no one was hurt.”
A spokesperson for Electricity North West, said: “We were well prepared for Storm Doris and I’m happy to report that we restored power quickly to the vast majority of customers affected by the severe weather. Our engineers worked in extremely difficult conditions to repair damage caused by the severe gales and we would like to thank everyone for their support last week.