TEN YEARS AGO Friday March 29, 2013
No one to blame
No machine or organisation could have prevented the snow chaos on the A83 at Clachan last Friday and Saturday.
That is the view of the one man most qualified to comment.
Farmer Colin McCallum, 55, was in the thick of road clearing efforts with two tractors and a loader as conditions deteriorated rapidly on Friday morning.
“If I thought someone had made a mess of things, I’d be the first to tell you,” he told the Courier.
“No blame lies with anyone for the state of that road.
“I’ve heard a lot of talk about Argyll and Bute Council not coping, not handling things properly. I can assure you no one could do any better.
“No machine could have coped with the volume of snow, and nothing more could have been done. The snow drifted as high as 20ft over the weekend.
“I have nothing but praise for the snowplough and Hydro men who worked for hours and hours in appalling conditions.
“One Hydro boy who had been up a pole for two hours could not move his mouth or tongue he was that cold.”
Mr McCallum, whose Strathnafanaig Farm takes the land either side of the worst stretch of the road going north out of Clachan, said he and his son, Alistair, 24, spent the best part of Friday digging out cars stuck in drifts and even a snow plough.
“A van got stuck in front of the plough,” he said. “By the time it got the van out and turned, the snowdrift was that big that it couldn’t get through it.”
Mr McCallum, a beef and sheep farmer, lost a 90ft shed under the weight of 18 inches of snow. Most of his buildings’ roans and gutters collapsed. Hedges and fences were also flattened.