Thousands without power as South West stormy weather continues

Thousands without power as rain and wind continues Image source, BBC Weather Watchers/Chris Fletcher Image caption, The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for heavy rain on Saturday By Caroline Robinson  and  Chloe Parkman , South West Published 24 October 2026, 15:17 BST Updated 12 minutes ago Thousands of homes are without power, and disruption is continuing across Devon and Cornwall after more stormy weather. On Friday, Storm Austen battered the south-west of England before moving to other parts of the UK.

On Saturday, the Met Office , external issued a yellow weather warning for heavy rain from 11:00 BST until 23:00 for the South West, in association with Storm Boelo. In Devon and Cornwall, flights and trains have been cancelled. According to the National Grid more than 1,500 properties are without power in Cornwall, and more than 2,000 in Devon. Image caption, Louise Martin said the cafe would be open for members of the community without power Skybus said flights remained on hold due to adverse weather conditions, and due to a tree blocking the railway between Exeter St Davids and Okehampton the line was closed.

John Blackmore, operations director for the National Grid in the South West, said teams had been working "extremely hard in super challenging conditions" to restore power. "The positive is until this point we restored 117,000 customers, or slightly over, and that's no mean feat," he said. Blackmore said National Grid aimed to restore as many customers as possible by Sunday morning, but said it was "challenging". 'It's a bit miserable' He said the company was trying to build resilience through investment.

Near Truro, the Arborist cafe, has been welcoming people who do not have power in their homes. Louise Martin, co-owner, said: "We do this for the storms now, we did it in Storm Goretti, we've got a free tea and coffee station with water and biscuits. "People can come down and there's no pressure to buy anything here. She said: "You can help yourself to tea and coffee, bring a book, we've got games here... and you can charge your phones and devices, and if you want, bring flasks and things to fill up with hot water."

"It's a bit miserable being at home and being cold," she added. Image caption, Julie and Andrew Le Masurier are without power Julie and Andrew Le Masurier said they had been without power since early Friday morning and they were not expecting it to be back on until Sunday. Julia said they had their own water supply so were unable to pump the water. "It was a brilliant surprise to walk in here and find out that they've just got open house and free tea and coffee and stay as long as you like," she said.

"It's lovely, lovely thing to do for the community." Follow BBC Cornwall on X , external , Facebook , external and Instagram , external . Follow BBC Devon on X , external , Facebook , external and Instagram , external . Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk , external . Related topics Cornwall Devon Severe weather More on this story First storm of season brings day of disruption Published 1 day ago Storm Austen brings power cuts and travel disruption as more wind and rain forecast Published 22 hours ago BBC presenter battles strong winds as Storm Austen hits Newquay Published 1 day ago More on this story Met Office