STORM Arwen wreaked havoc on the lives of many people, leaving hundreds of Allerdale homes without power for four days in freezing temperatures.

Gale force winds ripped through the country, leaving three people dead and damaging properties.

Hundresds of residents in the villages of Pardshaw and Ullock, near Cockermouth, lost their power on Friday evening. It was not restored until Tuesday afternoon.

More than 112,000 homes throughout the North West were affected, including many in south Cumbria. Electricity North West (ENW) said they had never before experienced such widespread damage.

Hot food and drinks were available in some areas and community hubs set up south Cumbria. There was no support in north Cumbria.

Ross Hayman lives in Ullock, where all 70 properties were affected.

"It was appalling, there was no communication from anyone at all. I have some sympathy for the people in the call centre where I called several times as they could only go with the information in front of them, which was not accurate.

"I find it particularly annoying that they updated the website on Sunday saying it had been restored when it had not.

"There was no communication or updates. We could see online that there were hot food vans in the south of the county but nothing here."

Mr Hayman said there were elderly people in the village, living on their own. "It's not fair leaving them in sub zero temperatures and relying on neighbours to look after them," he said.

He will be claiming compensation from ENW

"The industry is supposed to be geared up to deal with these incidents. It's unacceptable for people to be left without any communication," he said.

Rev Canon Jane Charman is team rector of the Cockermouth area and lives in Pardshaw.

"Four days and nights without power was extremely challenging, especially for elderly residents, families with small children and those with health issues," she said.

"We are a friendly community and neighbours were looking out for one another but people now want assurances that this level of disruption won’t be allowed to happen again.

"If global warming is going to lead to more severe weather events in future, electricity companies will need to scale up their capacity to respond, or lives will be put at risk."

An ENW spokesman said at noon yesterday that they had restored power to about 94 per cent of the properties. There were "just under 7,000" still without power, he said.

Regarding the lack of accurate information, he said: "We have been using all the methods we can, including calling people on the priority register service.

"Once the damage had been assessed we could be more specific on restoration times."

"There are engineers who have worked here more than 35 years and they say this is the biggest storm they have dealt with in terms of damage," he said.