Killer gale roars into Scotland
STRONG winds and heavy rain were expected to batter Scotland today as the country faces a second day of disruption brought by the killer Storm Ophelia.
Gusts of more than 90mph were blamed yesterday for the deaths of three people in Ireland, as thousands of homes there were left without power.
This morning, commuters here were expected to face difficulties and a Met Office yellow ‘be aware’ warning was issued after 70mph winds were predicted for Scotland’s Central Belt.
Rail and ferry services will be affected as mobile teams were put on stand-by to deal with fallen trees and debris.
Last night, the main area of concern was possible flooding in the south-west of Scotland, which was placed on
an amber ‘be prepared’ warning. The tail end of the hurricane came to British shores exactly 30 years after the Great Storm of 1987 killed 18 people.
Eight flood warnings were issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) in the Solway Firth around bays at Kirkcudbright, Wigtown, West Luce and Southerness Point.
Four, less serious, flood alerts were in place for Dumfries and Galloway, Argyll and Bute, Ayrshire and Arran and West Central Scotland.
The majority of Cal Mac’s 27 ferry routes on the West Coast were either cancelled or suspended yesterday due to rough seas, which also prompted warnings from the RNLI to stay away from coastal waters.
Nearly 60 flights to and from Scottish airports were cancelled due to the weather, including Irish, Polish and London routes.
Some Celtic fans took to Twitter to say their flights to Germany had been cancelled ahead of the Parkhead club’s Champions League match with Bayern Munich tomorrow night.
In England, people in the west of the country reported an unusual red sun, believed to be the result of Ophelia whipping up sand from the Sahara Desert.
Teams of engineers were put on standby by the country’s power companies in the event of customers losing supply. A spokesman for SP Energy Networks said: ‘Even though power cuts are rare events for most people, during times of extreme weather they become more likely.
‘We have a team of engineers on hand 24/7 who will come out to your area to fix any power outages, but the sooner we know about it the better.’
Motorists on the M77 in western Scotland yesterday faced lengthy tailbacks as a lorry overturned in high winds around 8.30am and blocked the southbound lane for more than a hour.
The south-west of Scotland bore the brunt of the early damage in the country, battered by winds gusting to 80mph. In Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, the roof of a Scout hall was blown off, landing on top of a nearby church. In the same region, numerous trees were felled by the gales, one of them halting traffic on the A74 before being cleared.
Transport Minister Humza Yousaf helped co-ordinate preparations to deal with disruption on the nation’s roads and bridges at a meeting of the Scottish Government’s resilience committee.
The trunk road operating companies put additional resources in place to respond as quickly as possible to any incidents, with plant and equipment ready to be deployed if required.
The yellow ‘be aware’ warning was set to be in place until 3pm today covering a much larger area of Scotland, including the entire Central Belt.
With gusts of up to 70mph expected, concerns were raised over the possibility of major disruption to roads and bridges during the morning rush hour.
Winds will ease from the west by late morning, before leaving the east coast into the North Sea by mid-afternoon.
ScotRail said it was making changes to some services today, mainly on the Argyle line and in Fife, as mobile teams with chainsaws removed any fallen trees or debris from the line.
But yesterday Scotland was spared the worst of Ophelia’s wrath as the Republic of Ireland absorbed much of its impact.
A man died when a tree struck his car in Dundalk, a man in his 30s was killed in a chainsaw accident trying to remove a fallen tree in Co Tipperary, and a woman died when her car was hit by a tree in Waterford.
‘Extreme weather power cuts likely’