ENGINEERS from Electricity North West are ramping up preparations ahead of Storm Christoph.

Forecasters from the Met Office officially named the third storm of the season after issuing yellow and amber weather warnings.

As key workers, engineers for the power network operator are putting plans in place to monitor the network and ensure supplies and teams are available to respond if any electricity substations are affected by flooding.

Sam Loukes, Electricity North West’s incident manager, said: “We’re going to be as prepared as ever for Storm Christoph.

“We always have engineers on standby but when bad weather is forecast, we can ramp this up where possible.

“We’re well practised given Storm Bella hit the region just several weeks back over the festive period. Throughout the region, we’ll have local teams available to respond quickly on the ground and our customer team will also be available, and we’ll be sending out regular updates via our social media channels.

“We invest money throughout the year to ensure our network is as resilient as possible but when the weather hits, we make sure we’re ready to respond too.

“If anybody does see any damage to electricity equipment over the next few days then I urge them to stay away and report it to us immediately by calling 105.”

Electricity North West keeps supplies including extra sandbags, pumps and other equipment in ever-ready ‘flood cubes’ – containers that can be moved around the region to battle potential floods. These flood cubes are on standby to be moved to wherever they are needed on the network over the next few days.

You can view any live power cut information in the region on Electricity North West’s website, get in touch on Twitter or Facebook, or by calling for free on 105 from any phone.

Customers can stay safe and prepare themselves in the event of potential power cuts by following the simple advice here: www.enwl.co.uk/power-cuts/helpful-tips