60,000 left powerless as gales wreak havoc

As the skies darkened, three-quarters of the nation’s schools were forced to close, all major road bridges were shut and drivers across central Scotland were told by police to avoid travel. But the roads still witnessed a spate of toppled lorries and an empty school bus, while winds blew over a wind turbine and, incredibly, appeared to set another ablaze.

After 80 flights from Edinburgh airport were cancelled, the terminal was left with some 60 stranded passengers and the Red Cross was called in to deliver overnight care packages.

But despite wave-whipped rivers threatening to burst their banks, Christmas decorations torn down in Aberdeen city centre and chunks of masonry toppling in Bellshill, the destruction first feared failed to come to pass.

Instead, many people followed the lead of Tian Tian and Yang Guang, the newly arrived giant pandas at Edinburgh Zoo, and retreated indoors.

In the face of what was feared could be a catastrophic storm, one tweeter dubbed it “Hurricane Bawbag”, which led to the curious phenomenon of the Scots colloquialism for a testicular sac trending at number one worldwide. Within hours, a wily entrepreneur was selling a range of T-shirts bearing the slogan “Hurricane Bawbag: A Load of Old Wind”.

The wind, which peaked at 165mph at the top of Cairn Gorm, was, indeed, relatively old, having started as a low pressure system off the coast of Newfoundland last week.

Caught by the transatlantic weather systems and swept east towards Britain, it was tagged as a yellow warning by the Exeter-based Met Office on Monday and upgraded to amber on Tuesday. By 10am on Wednesday, meteorologists, concerned that its tightening eye was leading to rapidly speeding winds, decided to issue the first ever red warning for high winds.

On Wednesday evening, the Scottish Government’s resilience committee met, with ministers and council representatives briefed by police and the Met Office’s chief forecaster, who explained that winds gusting up to 90mph were due to hit western areas of Scotland, the Central Belt and large parts of the south from 7am yesterday.

At 11:55pm on Wednesday, the Scottish Government contacted directors of education by e-mail to say schools in the west should not open and those in the east should close at lunchtime.

In the west of Scotland, people awoke yesterday to bruised black skies and driving rain. In Helensburgh, the wind whipped the waves over the front, and while some older pedestrians clung to lampposts for stability, teenagers held their jackets overhead and leaned into the wind. In Glasgow, the Clyde appeared exceedingly swollen.

At 11:13am, Lothian and Borders Police issued a statement saying all members of the public should avoid travel by road. Within an hour, the Dumfries and Galloway, Strathclyde and Central forces had issued similar advice, while those in Fife, Northern and Tayside advised drivers to travel with caution.

The strong winds closed the Forth Road Bridge, Erskine Bridge and Tay Road Bridge, leading to significant congestion as drivers, many sent home early, struggled to find alternative routes.

Many rail services were cancelled or delayed due to obstructions on the line and a blanket 50mph speed limit across the Scottish network. Caledonian MacBrayne ferries to the Western Isles were cancelled, with other ferry timetables severely disrupted.

At Scotland’s airports, more than 100 flights were cancelled, and some arriving passengers had to wait almost two hours to disembark, as the winds were too strong to use steps or air-bridges. One pilot told passengers it was the worst weather he had flown through in 36 years.

The winds caused a number of incidents across Scotland. Chunks of sandstone plummeted 45ft to the pavement as high winds battered a building in Bellshill, Lanarkshire. As the structure began to crumble away, it damaged the roof of an adjoining building, as well as scattering debris across the road and pavement. Police shut off the road and ordered residents and shop owners to be evacuated.

Darren Muir, 32, of Bellshill, said: “It was deafening. At first I thought it was maybe a car crash, but then I looked out and saw a big plume of dust cover the street.”

Articulated lorries were blown over at Glenshiel in the Highlands, Alexandria near Loch Lomond and at the Rest and Be Thankful, while a school bus overturned on the A737 in Dalry, Ayrshire, with the driver escaping with minor injuries.

In North Queensferry, a large tree in the car park of the Queensferry Hotel crashed on to a car, leaving the driver shaken but unhurt, while in Aberdeen’s Union Street, gale-force winds tore down a Christmas lights display, ripping a chunk of granite from the wall of the building, and leaving crumpled 6ft red baubles blocking the bus lane.

Last night, four stretches of pavement in Union Street were sealed off because of structural concerns about buildings, as high winds continued to batter Europe’s oil capital.

The wind was also too much for the machines designed to harness its energy. The A1107 was closed outside Coldingham in Berwickshire after fears were raised that blades from a wind turbine could fly off and scythe through neighbouring properties, which were evacuated as a precaution. After the blades were removed, the road was reopened and residents allowed to return.

A wind turbine in North Ayrshire, owned by Infinis, caught fire during the gales. Stuart McMahon, a resident in Ardrossan who photographed the flames, said: “The fire was out quickly, but some debris fell from it and drifted quite a distance.”

Another resident, Tom Young, said: “It was quite spectacular.”

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted the government had not overreacted.

She said: “I took part with colleagues in a resilience meeting last night. The Met Office was saying it was the highest possible warning. Police were saying there would probably – and it turned out to be the reality – be ‘no travel’ warnings.

“It was incumbent on government to react appropriately. The decision taken was right and appropriate.” Anyone who has seen the pictures across the country would agree with that.”

At Edinburgh Waverley station, Amanda Hannah disagreed. She was stuck en route to Newcastle, where she hoped to see the band Kasabian in concert.

The 37-year-old faced cancelled buses in Glasgow, so she paid for a taxi from her home to Queen Street station. But after getting to Edinburgh, she was trapped again by the weather.

“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “I had to fork out over £25 for a taxi because the bus was cancelled, and now I’m in Edinburgh and the train is cancelled. They’re overreacting for sure.”

Drinking peach schnapps to pass the time, she said: “Who knows when we’ll get going.”

FORECAST

TODAY is likely to start icy in many areas of Scotland.

There will be snow showers over some parts of the country during the course of the day, but these will mostly die out by evening.

Lothian and Borders will generally be drier with sunny spells.

The winds will drop to “moderate”, apart from in the north of Scotland where there could be gale-force blasts and blizzards. There will be frost in the evening for most of the country.

On Saturday, there will again be snow showers in many areas. They will be particularly strong further north, where it will be bitterly cold.

In more southerly areas it is likely to be brighter and drier later in the day.