Newquay, England — Storm Austen Cuts Power to 9,000 Homes

Storm Austen cut power to more than 9,000 homes across Cornwall and Devon as the system moved through southwest England, according to BBC News reporting published Oct. 23, 2026. The outage figure, drawn from the broadcaster's live coverage, marks the clearest numerical signal yet of the storm's reach into the national grid in the region.

BBC lead weather presenter Simon King reported from Newquay as what he described as the "full force" of the storm arrived, according to the same BBC News video dispatch. King was positioned in a sheltered location away from the coastline for the broadcast, the network said.

How many homes lost power in Storm Austen?

The more-than-9,000-home figure for Cornwall and Devon is the only outage count published in BBC News's Oct. 23, 2026 report. No separate tally was given for Guernsey, Jersey, Scotland, or the English regions under yellow warnings, and no restoration timeline was included in the source material. That leaves the Cornwall-Devon figure as the single hard data point available for measuring the storm's immediate infrastructure impact at the time of the broadcast.

Which areas are under the highest-level warnings?

A red weather warning — the UK Met Office's top tier, reserved for conditions that pose a danger to life — was in place for Guernsey and Jersey, according to BBC News. Cornwall and parts of Devon sat under an amber warning for strong winds, one step below red on the four-color scale the Met Office uses to rank severe-weather risk. The amber designation applied specifically to wind, distinguishing it from the rainfall-driven warnings issued elsewhere in the country.

Where is Storm Austen hitting hardest right now?

Newquay, on Cornwall's north coast, served as BBC News's base for live coverage because it sits inside the amber wind warning zone, the network's report said. The presenter's location was chosen for visibility of storm conditions while remaining away from the coastline itself, according to BBC News, a distinction the broadcaster noted explicitly in its description of the shoot.

What yellow warnings cover England and Scotland?

Beyond the amber zone, BBC News reported a yellow rain warning active in parts of Scotland, including the Lothian Borders area. Separately, a yellow warning — the lowest of the three active tiers in this event — was set to extend across the South East and North West of England, the East Midlands, and Wales as the morning progressed, according to the same report. The yellow tier typically signals a lower probability of disruption than amber or red but still carries potential for travel delays and localized flooding under Met Office classification standards referenced implicitly by the color system BBC News used to describe the warnings.

How many people could be affected as the storm spreads?

BBC News's report said the storm was expected to affect millions more people as the yellow warnings took effect across southeast and northwest England, the East Midlands, and Wales through the morning of Oct. 23, 2026. No breakdown by region or warning type accompanied that millions-affected figure in the source material, and no separate count of flight, rail, or ferry disruptions was provided. The network's live coverage, linked in its original report, was the designated channel for updates as conditions developed through the day.

The gap between the precise household-outage number — more than 9,000 homes in Cornwall and Devon — and the broader claim of millions affected nationwide illustrates how unevenly storm data can be reported in real time. One figure comes from grid-level outage reporting; the other reflects the cumulative population living inside active warning zones, a measure that captures exposure rather than confirmed impact. Readers tracking the storm's progression were directed to BBC News's live page for updates beyond the video dispatch, which remained the sole sourced account of outage numbers and warning boundaries as of publication.