More than a dozen schools in Surrey have been closed after Storm Ciaran left parts of the county without water and caused major disruption.
Schools situated in the Godalming and Guildford area confirmed they were fully or partially shut on Monday, after the storm created issues at the Shalford water treatment works.
Some schools said learning would move online for the day, while others invited certain year groups to attend or were due to re-open in the afternoon in a non-compulsory capacity.
Thames Water said it hoped to get customers back on supply “in the very near future”, with as many as 12,000 people remaining without water.
Surrey County Council (SCC) declared a major incident on Sunday.
It said staff were dealing with incidents involving reports of no water or low pressure, while Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said on Sunday that Thames Water had told him that at least 13,500 homes had been affected on Sunday afternoon.
Mr Hunt, who is MP for South West Surrey which includes Godalming and the surrounding villages among the affected areas, said he was “very concerned” about the situation and tweeted that he would talk to a Thames Water executive.
Two bottled water stations have been set up in Godalming and Guildford for local residents.
David Bird, retail director for Thames Water, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday: “We absolutely accept that the quality of service that has been provided to our customers has not been at the level they would want, but obviously in this specific incident in Guildford, it has been as a result of one of the biggest storms we’ve had in a decade.
“My focus today is making sure we are supporting all of our customers.”
Mr Bird said the water network around Guildford posed a particular challenge as it was “in effect an island”, and that Thames Water had given out nearly half a million litres of bottled water to those affected.
Alex Gill, 38, from Godalming, told the PA news agency that his water went off at some point on Saturday morning.
He said: “We’ve got a (two) and (four) year old who are just filthy now.
“School and nursery are closed, so (we are) having to juggle them with our quite intense jobs.
“My partner has an operation scheduled for tomorrow morning as part of her cancer treatment.
“It’s up in Sutton at the Royal Marsden but if the kids can’t go into their childcare setting tomorrow, I’m not quite sure what to do as we’re quite isolated from our families here.”
