Battle to restore power continues

This tree came down on a car at Chirk near Wrexham

Around 15,000 homes in mid and north Wales are still without power following storms and gale force winds which have battered the country .

Scottish Power electricity engineers have been working overnight to restore supplies.

They have halved the number of customers cut off and more staff are being drafted in.

On Thursday a driver died just after leaving Wales on the A55 near Chester when a lorry was blown onto a car.

Scottish Power said extra staff from Scotland and Northern Ireland had been brought to Wales to cope with the emergency, the second in a week.

Company spokesman Guy Jefferson said in all 300 engineers had worked through the night to reconnect supplies and a further 60 staff would arrive later.

Stand up

He said the electricity network had been extensively damaged and the worst hit areas are Ceredigion, Northern Powys, Gwynedd and the Conwy Valley.

Mr Jefferson said staff were being hampered by roads blocked by trees and fallen power lines and the atrocious weather conditions, and he pleaded for customers still cut off to be patient.

"In some places people could hardly stand up, let alone carry out repairs," he said.

"It's not only that but we have had problems accessing some of our sites because of the road problems. Please be patient with us."

Two schools in Powys - Whitton Primary near Knighton and Berriew Primary - are closed on Friday, as are two in Flintshire - Ysgol y Fron Junior in Holywell and Lixwm Primary.

A house in Bedford Street, Roath, Cardiff is damaged by a fallen tree

On Thursday gale force winds reaching 80mph in some places caused widespread disruption. Most flights from Cardiff International Airport and rail services in and out of Wales were disrupted.

By Friday morning the number of flood warnings in place across the country had fallen to five with the major problems on the Dee, Severn and Wye along the English border.

Transport services were returning to normal although Irish Ferries said their services from Holyhead were cancelled because of the bad weather

In north Wales, northbound trains between Shotton and Bidston on Merseyside are being replaced by buses after a fuse box was blown over in the high winds.

Roofs blown off

On Arriva Trains route between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog, the line is closed due to flooding

On Thursday a large number of trains between London Paddington and Cardiff were cancelled and flights out of Cardiff International Airport were cancelled, delayed or diverted.

The roofs were blown off five houses on the Trehafren estate at Newtown in Powys. All five families have been moved out.

In Prestatyn, the magistrates' court number two court had to be evacuated in mid-case after the roof started to lift while lorries overturned on the A55 on Anglesey and on the A5 at Chirk.

BBC meteorologist Derek Brockway warned that the weather looked like turning colder over the weekend.