Thousands still without power following weekend storms

Some schools in Aberdeenshire were either closed, or delayed opening on Monday.

Thousands were left without power (Andrew Milligan/PA) (PA Archive)

Tens of thousands of customers left without electricity have been reconnected after two storms battered Scotland in quick succession, though some people may be without power until Wednesday.

Storm Corrie hit the country on Sunday evening, with wind speeds of more than 90mph recorded in places, including a gust of 92mph at Inverbervie, Aberdeenshire – higher than the speeds recorded when Storm Arwen caused damage last year, or when Storm Malik hit on Saturday.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has chaired a further meeting of the Scottish Government’s Resilience Room (SGoRR) to co-ordinate the response to Storm Corrie and Storm Malik which hit the country earlier in the weekend.

The Scottish Government said that of the 115,847 households that lost power as a result of both storms, all but around 7,000 are expected to be reconnected on Monday evening.

Power companies are confident that the vast majority of those affected should be reconnected by Tuesday, but recognise that there may still be some outages going into Wednesday.

A nine-year-old boy in Staffordshire and a 60-year-old woman in Aberdeen died after the strong winds tore down trees on Saturday.

Some schools in Aberdeenshire were either closed, or delayed opening on Monday, because of the disruption.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “Today we have seen an improving situation across Scotland following the two very serious storms over the weekend. The power companies have drafted in a large number of additional engineers and are making significant inroads into reconnecting customers, with work continuing at pace this evening.

“I want to thank all those who are working in difficult conditions to keep people safe and maintain our lifeline services.

“For those who will unfortunately not have power tonight, support with alternative accommodation is available to anyone who needs it. Those who have found their own accommodation can seek reimbursement from their suppliers.

“Special arrangements remain in place for vulnerable customers and local resilience partnerships continue to work together to provide welfare support.”

The amber warning for Scotland has now come to an end however a yellow warning is in place covering Lewis, the Orkney Islands, much of the Highlands, Grampian and Tayside areas from 6am until 6pm on Tuesday.

Richard Gough, director of distribution system operations at Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), said Storm Corrie hitting on Sunday evening through to Monday morning had “compounded” the challenge they faced.

Our teams are doing all they can to restore power as quickly as possible, where it is safe to do so

Richard Gough, SSEN

He said: “Our teams have continued to make strong progress restoring power to customers impacted by the extreme weather from Storm Malik, with over 90% of those customers restored.

“Whilst our teams are making every effort to restore customers as soon as possible, the cumulative impact of Storms Malik and Corrie has compounded the restoration challenge.

“As a result, we are advising customers that while expected restoration of customer supplies from Storm Malik remains Tuesday evening, restoration times for some of those impacted by Storm Corrie may now extend to Wednesday.”

Mr Gough apologised to those affected, stressing that “all available resources have been deployed to support with restoration efforts”.

He said: “Our teams are doing all they can to restore power as quickly as possible, where it is safe to do so.”

SSEN teams have been out since first light to try to assess the damage and restore power as quickly as possible.

While people are without electricity, SSEN has put in place a range of welfare and support facilities.