MORE than 1,000 homes and businesses on Exmoor were left without power for several hours on Tuesday (January 21) as strong winds swept across West Somerset.

National Grid Electricity Distribution said there was a problem with the overhead high voltage network supplying a large area in and around Porlock.

The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning covering the period from 4 am to 4 pm on Tuesday and advised winds could reach 65 mph in exposed areas of the moor.

The fault was reported at about 10 am and affected a total of 1,012 properties across an area stretching to Oare and Dunkery Beacon.

Engineers were able to restore electricity to nearly 350 properties within minutes, and to another 400 inside the first two hours, while about 100 more had to waiting until nearly 5 pm for their connection to be restored.

A spokesperson said: “All customers were back on supply at 4.43 pm.

“We appreciate people’s patience while repairs were carried out.

“The outage was caused by an overhead lines fault.”

In Wiveliscombe, an underground cable fault saw nearly 50 properties in the town centre and South Street area cut off at about 9.20 am on Tuesday, with more than a dozen customers told it was likely to be 2 am on Wednesday before they could be reconnected.

By late afternoon, another 29 properties outside Wiveliscombe were cut off when a high voltage cables problem developed, with customers told to expect repairs to be completed by 7.30 pm.

Elsewhere, the road from Wootton Courtenay to Tivington was blocked on the edge of the village when a tree was brought down on Tuesday morning.