LARGE parts of Cumbria have been affected by Storm Arwen over the last few days.

Roads were closed, some homes were without power, and food vans were out in parts of the county.

The A66 remained closed in both directions between the A685 near Brough in Cumbria and the A1M Scotch Corner in County Durham until after 1pm yesterday afternoon.

National Highways worked with partner agencies including Durham Constabulary, Cumbria Police and the Met Office to clear the road and have recovery, gritters and snowploughs working to remove stranded vehicles and treat the road surface.

Electricity North West deployed engineers across Cumbria, Lancashire and the Peak to tackle the severe damage..

Strong winds and heavy snow saw more than 600 separate incidents of damage on the power network leading to 92,000 properties to be without power.

Stephanie Trubshaw, Customer Director and Incident Manager for Electricity North West, said: “The damage caused by Storm Arwen is some of the worst we have ever seen in the North West.

“It’s extremely severe and widespread across the region and that is why we have drafted in further resources from across the country to help tackle the incidents.”

Repairs to the power network include removing trees from lines, repairing broken lines and poles that have been damaged by flying debris and falling trees.

Stephanie Trubshaw added: “We understand this is an extremely difficult situation for all of our customers who have been impacted.

“Our customer contact centre has handled more than 50,000 inbound calls and we are still proactively contacting those on our Priority Services Register.

“I assure everybody we are doing everything we can, and our teams are working tirelessly to ensure power is restored.”

Cumbria County Council provided support for those who were affected.

It provided hot food for those in need in Alston, Ambleside, Coniston and Nenthead.

In Nenthead, there was a food van to Wright’s Garage.

At Alston Community Hub, which is located at the Masonic Hall, there were hot drinks, food, charging points and access to support officers for help and advice.

There was a food van in Ambleside at Waterhead Car Park on Borrans Road.

Coniston had a community hub at Coniston Sports and Social Centre on Shepherds Bridge Lane.