A MASSIVE rescue operation has been launched by Southern Electric after a power surge wrecked appliances in more than 1,800 Marchwood homes.

The company has rented Marchwood Village Hall for several days to enable residents to take their damaged goods to engineers to have them repaired.

Queues formed outside the hall yesterday and a large number of villagers were expected to turn up today.

Hard-pressed engineers have been told to give priority to the most important items, including baby alarms and microwave ovens.

The power surge happened last Thursday, wiping out electrical appliances in a large number of streets including Portside Close, Tides Way, Admiralty Way, Ordnance Way, Teeside Walk and Broad Walk. Soldiers at Marchwood Military Port and the Forestside Medical Practice were also affected by the freak incident.

Today Southern Electric spokesman Dennis Kirby said the power surge was caused by a fault in a transformer at the Marchwood sub-station.

He said: "It was a unique set of circumstances that took us by surprise."

Irate residents have accused Southern Electric of taking too long to repair damaged equipment and failing to let everyone know about the repair operation at the village hall.

But Mr Kirby said: "We have mobilised a lot of people, spoken to a lot of customers and generally put in a lot of effort to put this right.

"Many customers have said they're pleased with what we're doing.

"The people of Marchwood have been fantastic and have been knocking on each other's doors to make sure that everyone is all right.

"It's quite heart-warming to see all the effort that is going on."

Mr Kirby stressed that action was being taken to prevent any repeat of the power surge, which damaged everything from stereos to printers.

"We've got our boffins looking at the options and they have already come up with solutions," he said.

First customer to arrive today was Sally Porter, 40, of Admiralty Way, who was given two new CD players to replace those wrecked by the surge.

She said: "I heard about the problem from my next door neighbour, who was really badly affected. He lost televisions, phones and a boiler.

"I did some checks in my own house and discovered that my children's CD players were not working. I saw some Southern Electric vans whizzing around the village and found out that engineers were in this hall.''