ENGINEERS from Electricity North West are continuing to restore power to homes around Cumbria into the afternoon.

More than 18,000 properties were left without power last night as a result of ex-hurricane Ophelia, most of these in Cumbria.

Affected properties are mainly in the Lake District.

As of 1 pm today Ulverston still had 271 properties without power.

Power to all except 16 homes in Windermere has been restored.

It is expected that these properties could be without power until 5 pm this evening.

The region's power network operator restored supplies to more than 16,000 properties and are continuing their work across the region today.

Many were left without power as flying debris hit power lines and high winds made access difficult for repair teams.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Our engineers will be working throughout the day restoring power to the remaining 1,900 customers impacted by ex-hurricane <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ophelia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ophelia</a> <a href="https://t.co/IQzZ9a79Vc">pic.twitter.com/IQzZ9a79Vc</a></p>— ElectricityNorthWest (@ElecNW_News) <a href="https://twitter.com/ElecNW_News/status/920209752440877056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Martin Deehan, operations director for Electricity North West, said: “Our engineers are working in extremely difficult conditions and they will work as quickly and safely as possible to repair the damage caused by ex-hurricane Ophelia and restore power to customers.

“We are still monitoring the weather very closely and have drafted in extra engineers to help with the repairs.

"We work hard throughout the year maintaining and upgrading the network, but unfortunately overhead power lines can be damaged by flying debris in high winds.

“If you see any lines down please don’t approach them, call us directly on 105 and report it. You can also ring the same number to report a power cut 24 hours a day seven days a week.”

Electricity North West has a live power cut map on their website where you can track the current status and estimated time of restoration.

http://www.enwl.co.uk/power-cuts/live-power-cut-map