Storm Eowyn is a warning ‘climate change is with us’, says First Minister

Scotland’s First Minister has said reconnecting power in Scotland following Storm Eowyn has been a “colossal” task and the impact is a “warning that climate change is with us”.

Tens of thousands of homes were left without power after the storm hit on Friday with almost 8,000 homes still cut off on Monday morning.

Gusts hit 100mph north of the border as high winds claimed one life and caused widespread damage, disrupting travel and damaging property.

Speaking at an event in Edinburgh, John Swinney said: “It’s a warning to us that climate change is with us and the ferocity (of it).”

Addressing the power cuts, he said: “The scale of the challenge has been colossal, utterly colossal.”

He added: “Although there are 7,897 people off supply, the number that have been reconnected is in excess of 180,000 since Friday evening.”

Mr Swinney said: “I have been engaged with the resilience community and the power companies all weekend and I’m satisfied that there has been a huge mobilisation of resource to try to address this issue.”

He said the situation is now is more “diffuse” than over the weekend, with those without power living in more rural areas.

SP Energy Networks said 97% of its customers across central and southern Scotland had power restored as of 11am, with about 5,000 remaining without power.

The firm’s distribution director, Aileen Rourke, said: “We have made good progress to restore power and have our full resource deployed, but won’t rest till everyone is back on supply.

“The strength and severity of Eowyn has caused the equivalent of over 100 days’ worth of faults in less than three days and our engineers have been working tirelessly to repair each of these individual faults, but it is a mammoth task, especially when the weather has continued to bring challenges.

“In some cases, engineers are walking miles to get to broken poles and damaged power lines due to the remote locations and get equipment to the affected area.”

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said, as of 5pm on Monday, 1,700 customers were without power and hundreds of their engineers were working on repairs.

The company said most should have their power restored by the end of Monday and, in the “relatively few cases where this might not be possible”, welfare teams would be in touch.

The First Minister also spoke about the ongoing impact on rail services and said: “If you look at the rail map of what lines are still affected, you can see west-central Scotland is severely, badly affected because of the ferocity of the storms.”

Train operator ScotRail reported it had received reports of 500 incidents across its network and more than 120 trees having fallen onto tracks.

Network Rail is working on repairs, with lines opening when safe to do so, but said with “significant damage and debris to be repaired” the following routes will remain closed on Monday: Kilwinning – Ayr/Largs/Ardrossan; Dalreoch – Balloch; Ayr -Stranraer; Paisley Canal and Paisley – Gourock/Wemyss Bay.

ScotRail communications director David Ross said it had been a “very challenging” weekend but the “vast majority” of routes are back up and running.

He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “A lot of work has been carried out over the course of the weekend by colleagues at Network Rail.

“They’ve had reports of around 500 individual incidents and more than 120 trees fallen down on to the lines, so that’s been a massive repair job.

“So, as I say, the vast majority of routes are up and running, but there is still ongoing disruption in some parts of the country, for example, in Ayrshire and Inverclyde we’re still seeing some impacts – damaged overhead wires, for example.

“We’re still also seeing trees fallen on to the lines and on to the railway in some parts of the country, some areas of Lanarkshire. So, the impact of the storm is still being felt.”

Mr Ross said that in some parts of the country there will not be a “quick fix” and the impact may be felt for several days.

“There’s a lot of work involved in areas, particularly, where the wires have come down entirely – that is not a quick fix,” he said.

“So there are some parts of the country, for example down at Balloch, that will take a few days, it’s not going to be sorted quickly.”

He advised people to check the ScotRail website and app before travelling.

On Friday, hundreds of schools around the country were shut, with weather warnings in place across the country.

These included a red danger to life warning between 10am and 5pm that day, which covered the central belt and Dumfries and Galloway and stretched north on the west coast to Jura in Argyll and Bute.

While most schools are expected to reopen after the weekend, damage to some buildings will mean at least 20 will remain closed until repairs are made, the Scottish Government said.

Calum Carmichael, 19, from New Cumnock, East Ayrshire, died when his car was hit by a falling tree in nearby Mauchline at about 6.45am on Friday before the red weather warning came into force.

He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and died on Saturday, police said.

A number of public spaces and parks have also experienced extensive damage.

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh said the storm caused “severe damage” across its gardens.

In a post on social media, it said: “At Edinburgh, 15 trees have been lost – either uprooted or damaged beyond recovery.

“This includes the garden’s tallest tree, the 29-metre (95ft) Cedrus deodara, planted in 1859.”