VIOLENT gales left thousands of district homes without power as emergency services worked flat-out tackling broken power lines and fallen branches.

Electricity firm Aquila said its network had suffered "major disruption" due to Sunday's winds, which were comparable to the hurricane of 1987.

And people across the district have been growing increasingly exasperated since Sunday due to delays in reconnecting their power.

The Shuttle/Times & News has been inundated with calls from furious residents and Aquila was yesterday urging people who were still without power, or who needed to report overhead power lines down, to call their power loss helpline on 08457 331331. a tree in Chester Road North, Kidderminster, typified the scene following Sunday's high winds.

Thousands of homes were without electricity from Sunday and the weather conditions meant real progress on repairs could not be made until Monday.

Powerlines had been damaged by trees and debris - and an Aquila spokesman said Worcestershire was one of the worst-affected counties of the nine served by the firm, with wind speeds of up to 80mph.

However, no injuries were reported by the emergency services despite firefighters and police in Wyre Forest spending a busy Sunday dealing with dozens of sparking broken cables across roads and alarms being triggered.

Fallen trees and telegraph poles also had to be tackled.

Lynne Dingley, who lives in Arley Lane, Shatterford, with her three children, said residents in Arley, Shatterford and Trimpley had been without power for two days and that she had had to throw away newly-bought food from her freezer.

But she was one of several residents she knew of who had brought in a generator to help cope with the crisis.

Aquila was unable to provide specific details on the situation in Wyre Forest due to the volume of calls it was receiving, but said 24,000 homes across Worcestershire were initially affected by the power cut.

This figure had been cut to 856 as the Shuttle/Times and News went to press last night, with Hartlebury, Bayton and Clows Top named among places still suffering.

The firm said delays in reconnecting people were due to "low voltage faults" - and John Challenor, of Walton Lane, Hartlebury, said yesterday the power had not been fully restored but lights in his house were emitting a dull glow.

Aquila has urged people to scrap freezer contents if power was lost for more than 12 hours.

The firm has not yet made a decision on whether it will be offering compensation for the power cuts and has asked people to make a record of their power loss and wait for an announcement.