Storm Austen Left 18,000 Homes Without Power. Would Yours Have Coped?

Storm Austen, the first named storm of the 2026/27 season, reached the far south west overnight into Friday 23 October. By lunchtime it had cut power to more than 18,000 homes in England and Wales, closed airports in the Channel Islands, blocked railway lines with fallen trees and knocked part of Brighton’s West Pier into the sea. Jersey Airport recorded a gust of 84mph just before 6am.

Most people coped with Storm Austen. Some had a long, dark, noisy night in a caravan, and a few thousand are still waiting for the power to come back. This report goes through what Storm Austen actually did, using the BBC’s live coverage from Friday, and after each part sets out what would have made it easier. Storm Boelo arrives on Saturday, so if you live in Scotland, Northern Ireland or northern England, read this as a to-do list rather than a history lesson.

What Storm Austen Did

Austen deepened fast over the Atlantic. BBC Weather described it as explosive cyclogenesis, which means the pressure at its centre dropped by at least 24 hectopascals in 24 hours. It crossed the far south west and the Channel Islands in the early hours of Friday, then ran east along the English Channel.

During Storm Austen, Jersey and Guernsey were under a red wind warning, and every school on both islands was told to close. Cornwall and the far west of Devon had an amber warning until 10am. By mid-morning, yellow warnings covered most of England and Wales. These were some of the strongest gusts recorded:

• Jersey Airport: 84mph, just before 6am
• St Catherine’s Breakwater, Jersey: 82mph
• St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly: 76mph
• Guernsey Airport: 76mph
• Culdrose, Cornwall: 71mph
• Pointe du Raz, Brittany: 100mph (northern France took the strongest winds, and 161,000 French homes lost power)

In Brighton, part of the West Pier collapsed into the sea as waves battered it. The pier opened in 1866 and has been closed since 1975, so nobody was on it, but it still makes a point: old structures and big waves don’t mix. Haven evacuated its Perran Sands and Riviere Sands holiday parks in Cornwall on Thursday afternoon. One guest said the night before that “it sounded like our caravan was going to be ripped apart”. The National Trust shut Saltram, Buckland Abbey and Cotehele for the day.

The Power Cut Storm: 18,000 Homes in the Dark

Power was the biggest problem Storm Austen caused for most households. By 10:49 the National Grid was reporting 13,547 homes and businesses without electricity across 42 places in Cornwall, and 4,617 of them were registered vulnerable customers. By 11:25, almost 18,000 properties across England and Wales were cut off, including about 1,700 in Devon. Another thousand lost power in south west Wales early on, though most of those were expected back by 10am.

These details from the BBC’s coverage are what a power cut storm actually looks like for a household:

• A farmer in Nancledra, near St Ives, said her power had been going on and off since 5am, and it went off at milking time. Her neighbours have generators.
• In Hayle, a power line came down and sparked outside a school. Police closed the road.
• Cornwall councillor Thalia Marrington advised people to keep torches to hand.
• In Jersey and Guernsey, the Channel Islands Co-op didn’t open any food or pharmacy shops until 1pm.

The last point matters as much as the power cut itself. If your plan for a storm is to pop to the shop in the morning, the shop may not be open.

What would have helped

• A light you can find in the dark. Leave a torch by the bed, keep one in the kitchen and put a lantern somewhere you’ll find it without looking. A lantern lights a whole room, which a torch beam doesn’t.
• The number 105. It’s free and puts you through to your local electricity network operator from anywhere in Great Britain to report a power cut or a damaged line. Save it in your phone and write it down, because a flat phone can’t look anything up.
• The Priority Services Register. If anyone in your home relies on medical equipment, is elderly, or has a disability or a young baby, register with your network operator. Registered customers are the 4,617 “vulnerable customers” in Cornwall’s figures, and it’s how the network knows to check on them.
• Phones charged before the wind arrives. A charged power bank keeps a phone going for days, which matters when the phone is your torch, your radio and your only way to call 105.
• Food that doesn’t need cooking, and a few days of any medication. That way you don’t need a shop to open on time.

When the Phone and Internet Go Too

During Storm Austen, power cuts and fallen trees cut phone and internet lines as well. A power cut takes out your broadband router, and a fallen tree can take out the line itself. On Guernsey, a tree came down on the GSPCA animal rescue’s internet line at about 6am, leaving the charity with phone and internet problems for the day. Guernsey Post cancelled all deliveries and collections because the mail boat couldn’t sail. If your landline now runs through your broadband, as most do since the digital switchover, it goes off when the power does.

What would have helped

A radio that doesn’t need the mains. Local BBC radio stations stayed on air all day with road closures, school closures, power updates and ferry cancellations, and that’s exactly what you need when the internet is down and your phone battery is getting low. A wind-up or rechargeable radio also keeps going when the power cut lasts longer than you expected.

Preparing for High Winds: Trees, Debris and a Trampoline

Trees did most of Storm Austen’s damage on land. Penzance Council reported three trees blown over on Alexandra Road, one of them onto parked cars. Truro Golf Club lost 10 to 15 trees for the second time this year. Trees blocked roads at Notter Bridge, Callington, Dartmouth and Telegraph Hill on the A380. A tree fell onto the platform at Angmering station in West Sussex, though nobody was hurt. By 10am, Jersey’s highways team had logged 91 incidents involving trees.

Then there’s everything else the wind picks up. Jersey’s list of blocked roads on Friday morning included La Grande Route de St Laurent, closed by a trampoline. Two empty aviaries blew over at the GSPCA. A hotel near Whipsiderry Beach lost part of its roof. BBC Weather’s Simon King, reporting from Newquay, explained how his crew stayed safe: they stayed under shelter and never stood downwind of a building or anything else that could throw debris at them.

What would have helped

Preparing for high winds is mostly about what’s outside the house, not inside it.

• Walk round the garden the day before. Anything that can move will move: bins, pots, garden furniture, trampolines, loose fence panels and greenhouse panes.
• Park away from trees if you can, and away from walls that could come down.
• Stay in when the warning is at its peak. When a Met Office warning mentions “danger to life from flying debris”, it means things like the trampoline in Jersey.
• Look at your trees before storm season. A dead branch or a tree that’s already leaning is the one most likely to come down.

After the Wind Drops

Cleaning up after Storm Austen started on Friday morning. On Jersey, the highways team couldn’t clear trees overnight because of the dark and the wind, so it started at first light. In Cornwall, roads reopened one at a time as fallen branches were cleared, and Devon’s Torridge Bridge reopened at lunchtime.

What would have helped

• Keep well away from fallen power lines. Assume any line on the ground is live, keep at least 10 metres away, keep children and dogs away, and call 105, or 999 if someone is in danger.
• Photograph the damage before you clear anything. Insurers want to see it, and a photo with a date on it beats a description.
• Sort out temporary repairs quickly, because a slipped tile turns into a ceiling leak with the next shower of rain. A tarpaulin, some rope and a basic tool kit will keep the rain out until a roofer can get to you, and after a big storm that can take weeks.
• Check on your neighbours, especially anyone elderly or living alone, and above all if their power is still off.

Big Waves and Coastal Flooding

Storm Austen arrived soon after a high tide, which BBC Weather said peaked between 3am and 5am. That combination brought large waves and water over the top of sea defences. The Environment Agency issued a flood warning for the Dorset coast around Chiswell and told people to keep away from seafronts and harbours, because of waves coming over and spray carrying debris. In Plymouth, Tinside Lido filled up with seawater. Its post on Facebook said: “Someone tell the sea there’s a maximum capacity.” Seas around the Isles of Scilly reached five metres, and every Scillonian III sailing on Friday and Saturday was cancelled.

As a surf shop owner in Westward Ho! told the BBC: “Put the surf board away, stay in and cuddle the dog, have an extra coffee.”

What would have helped

• Don’t go and watch the waves. Every big storm has people on sea walls filming, and every big storm has a wave bigger than the one before.
• Sign up for free flood warnings if you live near the coast or a river. You can check flood warnings for anywhere in England.
• Keep important documents somewhere waterproof and easy to grab, including passports, insurance papers and anything you can’t replace.

For the full flood plan, see our Special Report “Flood Chiefs Issue Winter Warning: Is Your Flood Plan Ready?” first published on 12 October 2026.

Trains, Ferries and Planes

Getting anywhere during Storm Austen was hard work. Great Western Railway ran fewer trains with speed limits across Devon and Cornwall, and long-distance services stopped at Plymouth. Trees blocked the lines between Exeter and Barnstaple, between Westbury and Castle Cary, and near Falmouth. Exeter, Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney airports all had cancellations, and Loganair cancelled 18 flights. DFDS stopped sailings between Dover and Calais and between Newhaven and Dieppe, and Stena Line cancelled some Irish Sea crossings. Wightlink, Red Funnel’s Red Jet and the Isle of Wight hovercraft were all disrupted. On the A30 near Redruth, a van ended up on its side. Devon County Council asked people to put off any journey they didn’t need to make.

What would have helped

• Check with the operator before you set off, not on the platform. Rail, ferry and airline websites post disruption as soon as they know, often the evening before.
• If you have to drive, take what you’d need for a long wait: a warm layer, water, something to eat, a phone charger and a torch. A tree across the road can leave you sitting in the car for hours.
• Keep off two wheels. Jersey’s head of highways advised against bikes and motorbikes on Friday, and Jersey’s buses took their double deckers off the road until the wind dropped.

How to Prepare for a Bad Storm Before Boelo Arrives

Storm Boelo is the next name on this season’s list, and it’s coming further north. The Met Office has issued an amber wind warning from 9pm on Saturday until 9pm on Sunday covering much of mainland Scotland and the Western Isles, counties Antrim and Londonderry, and parts of north west England. A wider yellow warning covers most of Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, including Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, York, Sheffield and Hull. The strongest gusts are expected overnight on Saturday, with up to 80mph possible on exposed coasts and headlands. BBC Weather says another deep low could follow on Monday night into Tuesday, though it’s too early to say whether it will be named.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “We’re in a situation today where the UK is facing storms, and obviously we feel for the people without power in Cornwall right now… it is just having those supplies in the house to get you through those moments.” He added that the UK is “potentially facing a winter of greater flooding”. That’s the same message as the government’s new Be Ready campaign, which launched this week.

Storm preparation doesn’t take a weekend. If Boelo is heading your way, here’s how to prepare for a bad storm in an evening, using what Storm Austen taught us:

• Check the Met Office warnings for your area, and check them again on Saturday afternoon.
• Put away or tie down anything in the garden that can move. Trampolines first.
• Charge every phone, power bank and rechargeable torch on Saturday.
• Put a torch where you can find it in the dark, and a lantern for the living room.
• Save 105 in your phone and write it on paper too.
• Get in a couple of days of food that doesn’t need cooking, and any medication you’ll need.
• Fill a few bottles of water in case a power cut stops the pumps.
• Check your journey before you set off on Sunday, or don’t go at all.
• Walk the dog before the wind picks up.

The bigger picture is a busy winter. See our Special Report “El Nino UK Winter 2026: The Record Storm Season” first published on 5 September 2026.

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