Storm Babet Response

This October saw Storm Babet barrel into the UK, leaving hundreds homeless and several people losing their lives. With over a thousand properties flooded and some towns evacuated, our teams worked especially hard for our clients in these challenging conditions.

Whilst the storm lasted a matter of days, the aftermath of the flooding carried on for weeks, with groundworks delayed and roads remaining blocked due to flooding.

In the South East, we provided over 70 skilled operatives to help our client UK Power Networks, ensuring their customers kept the lights on.

In North Wales and Scotland, we supported our client SP Energy Networks and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks with over 50 operatives on standby as and when they needed it. In Scotland, we supported SSE to restore power to over 37,000 homes, with extreme winds of 77mph and 176mm of rainfall over a 36 hour period, making Babet the third highest impact storm since 2015. Our client said:

“Our storm procedures in Scotland run like a well-oiled machine and it is great to see the capability in action. However, none of it works without boots on the ground in skilled roles to safely repair our network, and the role our contractors played in our response to Storm Babet has been vital in our success.” – Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks.

Our teams provided the personnel, equipment and resolve necessary to restore power for our clients under the most difficult circumstances.

In Leicester our Reinstatement Team support our clients Cadent Gas, National Grid and Severn Trent Water. They worked throughout the weekend in torrential rain, to protect our clients assets. Some were working in excavations, whilst others were quickly pumping the rainwater out of the ditch to avoid any damage to the lines. We spoke to Kelvin Gunn, our Reinstatement Manager in the Midlands to find out more:

“It’s difficult to achieve results when you’re dealing with these conditions, but our key priority is protecting our client’s assets. We knew a few days in advance that the weather would be difficult, but we as a business need to facilitate our clients needs.”

They assisted Staffordshire County Council and the local fire brigade to ensure all members of the public remained safe…

“We attended a site for National Grid Electricity Distribution, but when we arrived the hole was flooded and the road too. Adjacent to the work area, there was a cul-de-sac with 8 bungalows within it, the water had started to flood the properties, where pensioners were residing. We stopped our activities for that day to create a dam at the top of the road to create a diversion.”

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