WE’RE POWERING BACK WI’ ALI’S ARMY
ALI’S Army were on the march yesterday as squads of workers battled the elements to restore power to homes across Scotland.
About 600 ScottishPower engineers were mobilised to reconnect electricity supplies to 70,000 people cut off by Wednesday’s storm.
Winds of up to 100mph wreaked havoc on the network, as well as destroying properties and disrupting transport links.
A ScottishPower spokesman described the storm as the worst “in living memory” for September.
He added that engineers “were struggling to stand up” in the winds.
Much of the damage to electricity networks was caused by debris, especially trees and branches in full leaf, striking power lines and poles.
ScottishPower were confident that 3700 homes still without power would be reconnected by the end of yesterday. Most of them were in Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders.
Iain Steele, district manager in Dumfries and Galloway, said: “We have never seen so many trees come down.
“Severe winds in the late summer can be more problematic than a winter storm. With the leaves still in full bloom on the trees, the wind has basically just dragged them out of the ground and pulled them down.
“This snaps our poles and brings down wires, creating complicated and labour-intensive jobs to get the lines back up and running.”
SSE said they had reconnected 24,750 customers, with 750 still without power yesterday.
A spokesman for SP Energy Networks said: “About 65,000 customers impacted by the high winds
Severe winds in late summer can be more problematic that a winter storm SCOTTISHPOWER BOSS
have experienced some kind of power outage. Over 62,000 properties have since been reconnected.”
A schoolboy at Trinity Primary in Edinburgh suffered multiple injuries when a branch fell on him.
The P2 pupil was taken to the city’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children after he was hurt during his lunchbreak on
Wednesday. His injuries were described as serious but not life-threatening.
A cyclist was hurt when part of a tree came down in Springfield Road, near Celtic Park in Glasgow.
Van driver Matthew Smith, 58, who went to the cyclist’s aid, said: “The guy was under part of the tree. The police put me in contact with him at the hospital and he told me he has broken his back.”
The weather also caused transport chaos, with cancelled trains and road closures.
A ScotRail Alliance spokesman said: “We are continuing to work flat out to keep people moving.”
Tugboats were sent out to assist the Nautica cruise liner in Greenock after it slipped its moorings. Witnesses said it was “spinning” in the Firth of Clyde.
More than 500 passengers and crew were taken ashore.
In Fife, a tree fell on a coach taking Dundee University footballers to a game in St Andrews. In Ireland, a woman was killed after her caravan was blown into the sea on the Galway coast. She was named as Elvira Ferraii from Switzerland.
A man in his 20s died when a tree fell on workers at Slieve Gullion forest park near Newry, Northern Ireland.
Yesterday, parts of Scotland experienced their first snowfall of the year. A light dusting fell at the Cairngorm ski resort at Aviemore.
Further strong winds are expected over the weekend.