POWER has been restored to homes in Markle – almost a week after they were plunged into darkness by Storm Arwen.

Winds of almost 100 miles per hour saw powercuts across much of the county.

Many residents were without power for a number of hours while the Salvation Army visited Athelstaneford and Bolton to offer people access to hot water and the chance to charge mobile devices.

One of the places worst affected was Markle, near East Linton.

Neil Morland, from Markle, was pleased to tell the Courier that everyone once again had power.

The power was switched off in much of the settlement for a spell before it came back on at about 9pm last night (Thursday).

In the aftermath of the storm, SP Energy Networks is offering additional compensation of £150 per household to those off for more than 48 hours as an apology for the disruption caused.

SP Energy Networks teams worked tirelessly to restore power to the 200,000 customers impacted, often in challenging weather conditions, to connect 88 per cent of customers in the first 24 hours following the storm and 96 per cent within 48 hours.

Frank Mitchell, CEO of SP Energy Networks, thanked customers for their patience.

He said: “We apologise again to everyone affected by the damage to the power network caused by the storm.

“The devastation right across the communities we serve from Fife, Lothian and Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Cheshire, North and Mid Wales from north easterly wind speeds of up to 97mph, was far greater than we have seen for at least 25 years.

“Our full resources were deployed to make repairs, with a team of 1,000 staff involved in emergency action and direct field response, also supported by our customer service teams managing calls and customers in our service centres.

“Our engineers have worked daily from first light until the small hours to make repairs as quickly and as safely as they could, and I’m hugely proud of their efforts.

“While our early storm response was hampered by road access due to fallen trees and significant storm debris, we’ve had boots on the ground across our operating area endeavouring to get customers back on supply as quickly and as safely as possible.”