Given what’s happening in the world today, the events which affected many of us earlier in the year now seem to be a very long way away but in February I wrote an article titled Storms arrived as predicted which highlighted some of the local damage caused by storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin.
Here in the south east we had seen nothing like it for many years, but compared to areas such as Cumbria and South Wales where they suffered power outages for weeks, we came off pretty lightly. Being without power and water, even for a few days, makes you realise how much we take these facilities for granted but also how heavily dependent on them we are for our basic survival.
I remember listening to the radio whilst the storms were raging, hearing telephone interviews with those affected in the north of the country, some of whom had been without power for weeks and many also had no water. One lady spoke about having to run her car on the drive in order to charge her mobile phone which was her only means of communication as the power cables were down, hence her landline and internet were not functioning and to compound the misery, fuel was in very short supply so travelling anywhere by car was not an option.
Then there was another lady who, in an effort to ‘do her bit’ for the planet had recently purchased an electrically powered car which, proved a fat lot of use with no power supply, no charge=no travel and she couldn’t charge her phone from the car even if she wanted to.
Most of us locally here in East Sussex suffered power outages and temporary loss of supply of water for varying periods, some for sporadic days, others for longer but in fairness, the service providers went all out to resolve the problems for us, a huge task and having to work in dangerous weather conditions but as the saying goes, the show must go on and without too much inconvenience the majority of us were up and running surprisingly quickly.
I thought no further of it, life at home had returned to something resembling normality then to my complete surprise and amazement I received the attached letter from UK Power Networks apologising for the inconvenience caused during the recent storms, due to the power cuts and attached to the letter was this cheque for £50 which was quite unexpected.
I feel it should go on record that UK Power Networks, who are often the subject of negative press, have recognised and accepted their obligations to their customers and have done what is required to show their commitment to providing a service by compensating us for our inconvenience. “Every little helps” as Tesco keep telling us, and at a time when the cost of living is rising quickly, I’m sure the £50 which many have received will be welcomed.
Putting things into perspective, yes, we were inconvenienced during the storms and it wasn’t fun, but when you look at the situation in Ukraine and what those innocent people are having to live through it makes you realise how lucky we are.
Image Credits: Nick Forman .