Thousands of homes in Cornwall are still without power or water four days after Storm Goretti battered the region with gusts of nearly 100mph. As of Monday, National Grid reported about 1,250 properties without power, mostly around Helston, while South West Water (SWW) said around 3,000 homes were without water. Cornwall council confirmed 31 schools were closed or opening late.
SWW described the storm's impact on its water network as 'devastating', with six major water mains in the Helston area severely damaged by uprooted trees. Sam Bottomley, water services director for Devon and Cornwall, said 30 to 40 trees had blown down, many landing on mains from the Wendron water treatment works. Repairs are ongoing, with supplies restored to over half of affected customers.
Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives, Andrew George, has called for a national emergency response, criticising the government for not providing more support. In a Facebook post, he said: 'If this happened in London or the home counties it would have been headline national news for days and the government would declare a national emergency.' He also hit out at Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle for failing to grant him a debate on the issue, despite granting one for East Grinstead in Sussex, which suffered a water outage affecting 16,500 homes.
George highlighted the impact on vulnerable people, including nursing home residents evacuated after their building's roof was ripped off and power and water lost. He said over 50,000 homes in Cornwall and Scilly had experienced water or electricity outages. In response to two major outages in Kent and Sussex, MPs criticised SWW chief executive David Hinton as 'not up to the job' during an urgent question in the Commons.
Janine Williams, landlord of the Blue Anchor pub in Helston, told the BBC: 'It's been a bit of a mess. We've had a lot of people coming in trying to charge their phones.' She noted the pub had well water and electricity, providing a warm place for residents. On Friday, a man in his 50s was found dead after a tree fell on a caravan in the Mawgan area of Helston; his death is not being treated as suspicious.
