Winds, snow and floods bring misery
Damage to homes and travel chaos across country
HIGH winds and heavy snow have brought misery to homeowners, motorists and shopkeepers.
Hundreds of properties were left without power, with railways and roads disrupted. In Glasgow a city centre hotel had a chunk of sheeting ripped off its roof. There was also some flooding.
Meanwhile cars and lorries stranded on the A9 got moving again yesterday morning.
HOMEOWNERS, hoteliers and shop owners are counting the cost of the damage caused by high winds and heavy snow, which brought misery across the country.
The gusts left hundreds of homes without power, and triggered disruption on the railways, with trees and flooding blocking the tracks.
In towns and cities, tiles were torn off roofs and in Glasgow, there were near misses after a chunk of sheeting fell from a hotel, forcing the authorities to shut part of Bath Street.
In Edinburgh, the copper sheets blew off the roof of the famous Jenners store in Princes Street, forcing part of the city centre to be shut. There was concern about an overhanging piece of masonry that had been dislodged.
Part of the city’s Potterrow was cordoned off after cladding on the roof of a building came loose in high winds.
A garage owner in Ibrox, Glas- gow, saw six cars which were up for sale severely damaged after a wall blew over.
Homeowners in the village of Carsphairn, Dumfries and Galloway, were left counting the cost of damage after eight properties were flooded. There were 23 flooding incidents across the west of Scotland. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency had at one point, 24 flood warnings and seven flood alerts in place.
There was misery for motorists on the A9, when the snow gates were shut late on Wednesday night between Blair Atholl and Ralia. Stranded overnight, the drivers were finally able to move at about 10am in a convoy with lorries and other vehicles.
Jamie Duncan, who got stuck at 9.30pm, spent the night parked just outside Blair Atholl with a friend, as he was trying to get to Inverness to celebrate his 20th birthday.
He told BBC Radio Scotland how he was parked in a layby without any food “hoping for the best.”
Police Scotland worked through the night with partner agencies including road maintenance company Bear Scotland to ensure the safety of motorists on the A9 following the heavy snowfall.
A spokesman for the contractor said: “Our team of eight winter vehicles, including three fast-track tractors, worked around the clock to clear the A9 and this morning helped to mobilise 20 HGVs.
“Some vehicles decided to queue to wait for the A9 to reopen once cleared.”
Police Scotland described the conditions as being “extremely difficult.”
A spokesman added: “It was necessary to close the road due to the extreme weather conditions to ensure the safety of motorists and
Our team of vehicles worked around the clock to clear the A9 and mobilise HGVs
also allow the workforce to safely clear the route.”
Also in the Highlands, 15 schools and nurseries were shut due to bad weather, while the Corran Ferry was not operating due to high winds.
The Met Office reported winds of 101mph in Great Dunsell, Cumbria – the highest across the UK yesterday – while other exposed areas also recorded speeds well in excess of 70mph.
A train struck debris from a landslip near Dunning in Perthshire at around 11pm on Wednesday. No-one was injured.
No ScotRail daytime trains were running between Perth and Inverness due to heavy overnight snow.
No trains were running on several routes to allow engineers to carry out safety checks.
Mark Wilson of the Met Office said the worst of the conditions hadve hopefully passed.
Last week, fierce storms left 120,000 properties without power in Scotland and caused widespread disruption to rail services.