Storm Arwen: Many still left without power in Scotland as police declare storm 'major incident'

Over 30,000 customers across Scotland are still without power and many are impacted by water supplies as Storm Arwen damage continues to affect people.

Thousands of people across Scotland are still without power and many are impacted by water supplies as a result of Storm Arwen damage (Photo: Midlothian Council).

Following the devastating impact of Storm Arwen, thousands of people are spending a third night without power across Scotland.

Since the start of the storm at lunchtime on Friday, power has been restored to 88,000 customers in total, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has commented.

However, 32,000 customers are currently off supply as SSEN remains at red alert status across its north of Scotland electricity network.

Scottish Water claims it restored supplies to 6,000 properties across the country by Sunday afternoon, however, 3,000 were still affected and bottled water was being distributed.

It comes as police in north east Scotland have declared a major incident and warned disruption could last several days following the rare red weather alert.

All schools in Aberdeenshire will remain closed on Monday and Tuesday and NHS Grampian has said all its Aberdeenshire vaccination centres will be closed on Monday.

Water supplies have also been disrupted as falllen trees damaged equipment.

ScotRail said work is continuing to clear roads and railway lines but some services were still suspended.

Mark Rough, director of customer operations at SSEN said: “Storm Arwen has resulted in some of the most significant and challenging conditions experienced the North of Scotland in decades, resulting in catastrophic damage to several overhead circuits with multiple instances of damage which need to be repaired before power can be restored.

"The damage caused by Storm Arwen is at least three times greater than we experienced from the Beast from the East storm in 2018, demonstrating the scale of challenge our teams have faced.

“We continue to make good progress carrying our repairs and restoring power and would once again like to thank our customers for their continued patience and understanding in what continues to be very challenging circumstances. “We continue to work closely with our local resilience partners to prioritise support for our most vulnerable customers. We would encourage any customer with a vulnerability who has concerns about remaining off supply, or if you have concerns about a vulnerable relative or neighbour, please give our teams a call on 105.”

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