Shropshire Star

Thousands still without power and rail travel disrupted after Storm Eowyn

A red weather warning was in place in some parts of the country during the storm on Friday.

By contributor By Lucinda Cameron, PA Scotland
Published
A building damaged by Storm Eowyn
The storm caused widespread damage (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Thousands of properties remain without power and disruption to rail services continues four days after Storm Eowyn battered Scotland.

Tens of thousands of homes were left without power after the storm hit on Friday and around 2,800 were still cut off on Tuesday morning.

The high winds, with gusts of up to 100mph, claimed one life and caused significant damage including to infrastructure on the rail network.

Network Rail has been working on repairs and said the “vast majority” of the network is now open. However, the Paisley-Gourock/Wemyss Bay and Kilwinning-Largs/Ardrossan routes remain closed, as do the Hamilton Circle and Ayr-Girvan-Stranraer routes.

Winter weather
The storm brought down many trees (Jane Barlow/PA)

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said reconnecting power in Scotland following the storm has been a “colossal” task.

As of 7am on Tuesday, 900 SSEN Distribution customers remained without power, and 1,908 SP Energy Networks were still cut off at 9am.

Both companies said their engineers were working hard to restore supplies.

Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said there would be “no let up” in returning power to affected homes.

She told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “We have not let up over the weekend.
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“There will be a Scottish Government Resilience Room meeting today and the focus is to try and ensure as many of those properties are connected as quickly as possible.”

She added: “It has been an unprecedented challenge and my heart goes out to those that are still without power.

“But there’s certainly no let up from us in Government or amongst the energy companies to try and restore power as far and wide as possible.”

On Friday, hundreds of schools around the country were shut, with weather warnings in place across the country, and the Scottish Government said a “very small number” of schools will be closed on Tuesday.

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

Calum Carmichael, 19, from New Cumnock, East Ayrshire, died after 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.

Network Rail Scotland said it received reports of 500 incidents across its network and more than 120 trees having fallen on to tracks due to the storm.

ScotRail advised people to check their journey before travelling.

In a post on X, it said: “Some routes across the country still remain closed. @NetworkRailSCOT are working hard to continue inspections and repair work of the tracks.

“Please continue to check our website and app for the most up-to-date information on services.”

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