Storm families are facing four days without power
A police car passes a road sign damaged in a storm in West Barns, East Lothian. Picture: GRAHAM STUART/AFP/Getty Images
NEARLY 10,000 people spent a second night without power last night with some not expected to be reconnected until tomorrow after the biggest storm to batter Scotland for 13 years.
A major clear-up operation will continue today after Tuesday’s hurricane force winds of up to 102mph wreaked havoc.
The railways suffered some of the worst damage, with 800 trees blocking lines or being felled because they were in a dangerous condition in Fife alone.
ScottishPower was last night hoping to reconnect some 6,000 of its 12,500 customers still without electricity, while Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) expected to restore supplies to 6,000 of its 9,000 customers.
The power cuts are affecting the Lothians, Fife, Stirling, Falkirk, Clackmannanshire, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Tayside and Argyll.
The total compares to 145,000 people across Scotland who suffered power cuts during the storm – 85,000 from ScottishPower and 40,000 from SSE.
ScottishPower said “small pockets” of customers may still be without power tonight.
SSE said it was confident it would reconnect the “vast majority” of remaining customers – in Argyll – today.
A ScottishPower spokesman said: “The problem has been winds significantly stronger at lower levels than last month’s storm, with winds of 90mph rather than 70mph.
“Whole roofs have been hitting electricity sub-stations, which we have not seen before.”
The Met Office said the storm’s peak wind speed of 102mph, on Blackford Hill in Edinburgh, was the highest in the city since 107mph was recorded in the Boxing Day storm of 1998. The record for the capital is 110mph in 1979.
Network Rail said it had re-opened 90 per cent of the Scottish network last night after removing trees and debris from tracks in the east and repairing damage to overhead power lines in the west.
A total of 40 trees were blown on to a 300-yard stretch of the Edinburgh-Dundee line at Markinch in Fife, with a further 760 lineside trees being cut down by chainsaw gangs because they were in danger of falling.
Other routes were blocked by fencing, sheds and garden furniture blown on to tracks.
Damage was also caused to a sea wall near Helensburgh.
A Network Rail spokesman said: “There have been unprecedented levels of trees and debris to clear. However, we expect to have the vast majority of lines open for today.”
Much of the network had to be shut down during the storm, with commuters returning to work yesterday hampered by several lines still closed, including Edinburgh to Dundee and Perth, Glasgow to Wemyss Bay and Gourock, and Dumbarton to Helensburgh and Balloch.
A wind turbine warehouse beside the cargo terminal at Edinburgh airport was destroyed after one of its walls collapsed in the storm.
Dr Charlie Silverton, managing director of Renewable Devices, said £1 million of damage had been caused to components in the building, which was empty because he had told the five staff not to come in.
He said: “I was horrified – it is a disaster for us, but I am very happy no-one came to work.”
A nearby Jet2 aircraft, being used to transport mail, suffered nose damage after it was struck by part of a bus shelter sheared off by the winds and blown over two fences.
The winds ripped off sections of roofs on numerous homes and other buildings, including Kaimes school in Edinburgh.
Other roof victims in the capital included Kirkliston Leisure Centre and the indoor climbing centre at Ratho.
The city council took 75 calls about fallen trees and 110 about damaged buildings – nearly three times as many as after last month’s storm,
The council also reported masonry from Edinburgh Castle had fallen on to Johnston Terrace.
Historic Scotland closed Dumbarton Castle after hoarding around scaffolding on the Governor’s House was dislodged and roof slates were blown off the 18th-century Powder Magazine.
Glasgow City Council staff dealt with some 350 fallen or damaged trees, 50 damaged or toppled street lights and more than 100 reports of damage to roofs and chimneys.
Five Glasgow schools suffered damage while several roads were closed by dangerous buildings.
Gales continued to disrupt many west coast ferries yesterday, with sailings cancelled on the Oban-Barra, Mallaig-Skye and Harris-North Uist routes.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued flood warnings for 11 areas, including Tayside and west of Inverness, while there were a further 12 flood watches in force.
Finance secretary John Swinney praised the efforts of engineers to restore power supplies.
He said: “The arrangements put in place on Monday, and the tireless work of staff throughout the country, have helped to minimise disruption to communities and businesses.”
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Weather for Edinburgh
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Comments
There are 19 comments to this article
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Rover75
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:14 AMWho on earth wrote this piece about the storms, as they seem to have forgotten what they learnt at school or borstal! First line: "Winds reaching 100mph winds and heavy rain lashed Scotland today" - Shouldn't this read as: Winds reaching 100mph and heavy rain lashed Scotland today. Has anybody ever seen 100 Mph winds reaching other less intense winds ??
Hector the Lessor
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 06:58 AM#15 Peter Nkosi. Apologies, no this will have no effect on the SPN, in fact any help you can give the Scotsman in this matter will I guarantee, well just about, be much appreciated.
Hector the Lessor
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 06:51 AM#15 Peter Nkosi. Sorry I left out the explanation of the expression "in Fife alone". It could be expanded to declare "there were a great many trees knocked down over Scotland even in Fife." English is indeed a great language, we Scots have used it for hundreds of years to try and make some sense of our London neighbours. Not with much success I may add.
Hector the Lessor
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 06:39 AM#15 Peter Nkosi. There is not a lot wrong with logging into the Scotsman to improve your English. Most of the journalists have a good command of the language. However if you move on to studying politics, you would be well advised to give the Scotsman a miss. As the Shetlanders would say "they were brought up all wrang". They also speak English but tend to do it with a Shetland flavour.
Peter Nkosi
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 04:41 AMI like to visit UK websites, to try to improve my English. This sentence in the article has me puzzled: "The railways suffered some of the worst damage, with 800 trees blocking lines or being felled because they were in a dangerous condition in Fife alone." I am not understanding that bit about 800 trees being alone. Generally, if there are 800 trees somewhere, then they cannot be said to be alone. Am I correct in thinking that, in this Fife place, there is a special definition about the aloneliness of trees? Did the trees escape from a forest elsewhere, and somehow ended up scattered and alone, in the Fife place? Does any of this reflect badly on your SPN?
Electric Hermit
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 03:46 AMIf only more of the infrastructure was built to nuclear standards..... During all this nonsense the country with the largest amount of nuclear reactors in western Europe (Yeah Scotland) has remained safe as usual, and CO2 free.
duelaynomore
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 02:51 AMI wonder what the effect upon SSE 's wind turbines has been compared with say a nuclear plant? It is cost effectivesness that we should be looking at, not our "green emotional quotients".
Arthur G
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 01:05 AMIs it not about time the Onionst troll(s) on here gave up the constant nasty onslaught against The Scottish Government and started to lay out the strategy of how he -they are going to adapt to an independant Scotland?
Charles Linskaill
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 12:26 AMNot to Worry!, ScottishPower will pay good compensation to those who did without electricity for more than 17Hours, I received £54 a few months ago from Scottish Power for being without electricity for 1 day, when we had a power cut in the West of Edinburgh.
Gallowglass
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 09:29 PMI CAN HEAR THE WIND OUTSIDE I DEMAND SNP HEADS ROLL
Gallowglass
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 09:28 PMJOWLY ECK JOWLY ECK. SCOTSMAN DRAWS A FATTY, JOWLY ECK. COULDNA BE SEPERATE, HE'D EAT AW THE PIES.
kari
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 08:03 PMHi, Gallowglass- I recognize the sarcasm, but may I recommend a stay in Northern Norway - when you might find that storms like yesterday`s are not unusual - you might even learn to walk properly in gales coming from all directions:))) As far as I know, not even SNP rules in Northern Norway:))
kari
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 07:58 PMWe were to return to Norway after a wonderful Hogmanay celebration in Edinburgh - but the return was not quite as wonderful due to the storm. There was a delay of about 5 hours regarding our flight, but we were lucky to be able to "get our take-off." The luck diasappeared in Norway as the last train bringing me home, had left! Which meant taxi for most of the way - which was not exactly cheap- not even on Norwegian terms... Quite typical that problems arise in Norway regarding trains, buses, etc and NOT really in UK!
Tartancult
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 05:52 PMThats a daft comment True Scot - have you never heard of sarcasm?
Irritatingly Intelligent Chauvinist
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 03:16 PMGet used to having longer and longer periods of no electricity as our reliance on wind power increases.
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