Here we blow again as gales head back
THOUSANDS of homes were still without power last night as the country braced i tself f or yet another storm.
Hurricane-force winds of up to 90mph will batter the north of the country today, where gales have already left nearly 9,000 people without electricity for more than three days.
Yesterday, energy giants said staff were working round the clock in ‘treacherous and worsening conditions’ to reconnect power to properties in the worst-affected areas – Inverness- shire, Oban, in Argyll, Perth, the Western Isles, Wick, in Caithness, and Dingwall, in Ross-shire.
Meanwhile, Red Cross workers helped vulnerable people by providing food, accommodation and generators.
But there were f ears of further disruption as the Met Office warned that the third major storm since the New Year will strike the country later this evening. A yellow ‘be aware’ warning was expected to be upgraded to amber ‘be prepared’ to reflect the wind speeds, which could see the Central Belt blasted by gusts of around 60mph.
Met Office spokesman Krista Mitchell said: ‘It just seems to keep on coming. Storms across Scotland are not unusual in winter. It’s just that we have seen three in quick succession that makes us notice it more.’
Ferry and train services face more problems as motorists battle treacherous conditions caused by surface water.
Yesterday, f erry services between the mainland and the islands were delayed or cancelled by CalMac, with warnings of more disruption today.
As snow and ice or surface water posed problems f or motorists on many routes yesterday, a driver died in a crash in Aberdeenshire.
Two people were also taken to hospital after a car collided with a gritter in Ayrshire.
With dozens of Red Cross volunteers working over the weekend with Scottish and Southern Energy to check on people without power and drop off supplies, the energy firm’s director of engineering, Alan Broadbent, praised staff battling ‘some of the worst weather conditions I have ever encountered’ to reconnect homes.
He added: ‘This really has become a f i ght with t he weather – we have the people, the resources, the commitment, but what we really need is a bit of luck for the weather to let us do our job.’
Anne Eadie, co- ordinating the Red Cross response, said: ‘For everyone affected this is an inconvenience, but for many vulnerable people it is a crisis.’
Electricity has now been restored to just under 100,000 customers since Friday, when strong winds and rain battered the network, a spokesman for Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution said.
The conditions also caused pr o bl e ms in Scotl an d’ s blizzard-hit mountains, with three people being rescued.
On Saturday, a man was airlifted to hospital by RAF helicopter after a fall in the Northern Corries of the Cairngorms.
Early yesterday Braemar Mountain Rescue led two people stranded overnight in the central Cairngorms to safety.