26/12/2013 South Today

throughout the evening on the BBC News Channel. We are back with the

late news Hello, good evening, I'm Tom

Hepworth. Almost 5,000 homes remain without power across the South this

evening. Some have been without electricity since Christmas Eve.

Petersfield, Aldershot and parts of Berkshire have been worst affected

after the stormy weather earlier this week. Southern Electric says it

has deployed extra staff to help customers, but flooding is slowing

down its efforts. At one nursing home near Basingstoke, elderly

residents were without power for four days and forced to spend most

of the festive period in bed. Here's Alastair Fee.

Buried under ten blankets to keep warm, Rachel has been in bed for

four days. Room by room, it is the same story, with no electricity this

has been the only way to keep out the cold. We built up blankets and

God knows what. The staff tried to keep us as warm as they possibly

can. This nursing home has been without power since Monday. Gas

cookers mean hot food is still being served, but it has been days since

they have had any heating. Despite repeated calls to Southern Electric,

they have literally been left in the dark not knowing when help would

arrive. Definitely have not been priority, it has been very hard to

get hold of anybody to speak to, and if you do get through they say there

are hundreds of homes out of electricity and they will get to us

when they can. This generator turned up late on Christmas Day but no

engineer came to collect it. When I was told the generator was coming

they told me that an engineer would be coming with it, and it was just

the driver. Staff and relatives have been doing what they can. She is

tucked up in bed at the moment were normally she would be sitting up

enjoying herself. We cannot do no more about keep her warm. Throughout

Christmas just three out of 26 people have been out of bed to

gather around the small gas heater. Southern Electric finally got the

power back on this afternoon, but everyone feels let down at a time

and a needed support the most. Southern Electric told us they are

trying to restore power as soon as possible and thank customers for

their patience. We understand it can be very frustrating for customers

waiting on the line wanting to talk to one of our staff members. I can

reassure everyone that we have plenty of staff taking calls, an

additional 50 people taking calls at the moment. I understand that there

are customers wanting to talk to customer service advisers, and it

can be extremely frustratingly newer waiting on the line.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority says it may investigate

Gatwick Airport, over the disruption to flights on Christmas Eve.

Thousands had their travel plans ruined after an electricity

substation flooded. The airport has apologised and says it's now

operating a full schedule. Football and Southampton roared into a 3`0

lead against Cardiff within half an hour. Two goals for Jay Rodriguez

and one from Ricky Lambert gave Saints their first win in seven

games. In the Championship, Bournemouth beat Yeovil Town 3`0,

Reading are out of the play`off places after losing 1`0 to Leicester

who go top, while Brighton went down 3`2 at Charlton. In League One,

Swindon Town lost 3`2 at Brentford. MK Dons beat Crawley 2`0. In League

Two, Portsmouth won their first game in nine beating Dagenham Redbridge

1`0 at Fratton Park. Oxford stay second despite losing 3`2 at home to

Plymouth Argyle. Time for a look at the weather.

Good evening. Another decidedly wet and windy spell during the course of

tonight, that will be unwelcome news where you have already had some

local flooding. There is a yellow warning in force. Through the course

of tonight, brighter colours are developing as heavy rain spreads

in. Maybe 60, 70 mph gusts, temperatures tonight for what it's

worth about three or eight Celsius. The rain might linger for a while

tomorrow, but generally speaking we are into a day then of bright

spells, a blustery day with heavy showers. Temperatures tomorrow

getting up to about lo double figures.

That's how it is looking this evening. Thank you. We will be back

with another bulletin at 10:15pm. Until then have a very good evening.

Hello there, most of us have had a quiet Boxing Day, mostly dry,

chilly, lingering mist, light winds. That is all about to change. The

next storm arriving on our doorstep right now, over night tonight will

see wet and windy weather. The