Britain has been hit by three named storms in a week for the first time since the system was introduced seven years ago, with strong winds hampering efforts to restore power to tens of thousands of homes.

       Large parts of the UK have been warned to brace themselves for winds of up to 80mph which could bring travel chaos and further power cuts on Monday morning.

       More than 55,000 homes across southern and eastern England and South Wales face a fourth day without power after Storm Eunice caused the biggest national power outage on record on Friday.

       The arrival of the third storm, Franklin, was on Sunday night hampering engineers' efforts to reconnect homes and threatening further disruption to power lines. It could be days before all homes are reconnected.

       With yellow weather warnings for wind put in place on Sunday and running until lunchtime on Monday, the Met Office confirmed that it was the first time Britain had been hit by three named storms in a week.

       It has also issued an amber weather warning for winds brought by Storm Franklin across Northern Ireland for Monday.

       Becky Mitchell, a Met Office meteorologist, said: "At the moment we've got a really active jet stream, which is why we're seeing so many storms track right towards the UK. We had Dudley on Wednesday, Eunice on Friday and Franklin on Sunday."

       Hundreds of residents in Didsbury, Greater Manchester, were evacuated after the River Mersey broke its banks, with the Environment Agency issuing two "danger to life" flood warnings in the area.

       Heavy rain brought flooding across parts of Yorkshire, with roads closed and riverside residents warned to take steps to protect their homes.

       The Environment Agency had two severe flood warnings in place on Sunday night, both related to the river Mersey, as well as 97 flood warnings and 145 flood alerts. The north and west of the country were worst affected.

       Western Power still had more than 30,000 customers in the south west and Wales without power and Graham Halladay, its operations director, said "none of us can remember experiencing three storms in a week before, and certainly not of this ferocity".

       The Energy Networks Association said 1.35 million homes had been reconnected since Friday, and it aimed to reconnect the remaining 56,000 properties in "the next few days" despite efforts being "hampered" by Storm Franklin.

       The continuing power cuts led to Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service warning of an increase in carbon monoxide incidents and fire risks as residents resorted to measures such as using gas barbecues indoors.

       One family was saved on Saturday when a carbon monoxide alarm warned of dangerous levels of the gas caused by an indoor barbeque, the fire service said.

       The comedian Dawn French took a lighter look at the situation, telling her social media followers: "Our 'leccy has been off for over 24 hrs now which also means no water (pump). I've just had a flannel wash in sparkling water (all we have in cupboard) Never felt so posh, so alive, so wasteful…"

       National Rail said "routes across most of Great Britain" were likely to be affected on Monday and advised people to check before travelling. It said some parts of the network remained closed as operators struggled to recover from "major damage to the railway and obstructions on the line caused by Storm Eunice".

       Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, Great Northern, Great Western Railway, Greater Anglia, Northern, Southeastern, Southern, South Western Railway, Thameslink and London Underground were all said to be suffering "weather-related disruption".

       The Association of British Insurers indicated that the clean-up from Storm Eunice could cost more than ￡300 million.

       At the height of the storm, the roof of the O2 Arena in London was damaged, causing rapper Dave's upcoming concerts to be postponed, but the venue is still planning to open to

       At least three people were killed in the severe conditions in the UK on Friday, and a 79-year-old British man died in Ypres, Belgium, when he was blown from his boat by high winds, according to local reports.

       A father and son were rescued after spending two nights stranded in the Cairngorm Mountains as Storm Eunice swept in. The man, in his 30s, and his teenage son were freed from deep snow on Saturday after taking shelter in a bothy – stone cottages open to hikers in Scotland.