Weather warning issued for ice days after Storm Eowyn
Almost 400 people are still without power, six days after high winds caused widespread disruption.
A fresh weather warning has been issued as disruption continues following Storm Eowyn last week, with hundreds of people without power for a sixth day.
A Met Office yellow warning of ice will be in place in northern Scotland between 10pm on Wednesday and 10am on Thursday.
It comes after Storm Eowyn battered the country on Friday, claiming one life north of the border and leaving more than 130,000 people without power.
On Wednesday morning, 387 SP Energy Networks customers were still off supply, 303 of them in the Dumfries and Galloway region, and engineers were working to reconnect them.
The high winds, with gusts of up to 100mph, caused significant damage including to infrastructure on the rail network, which led to many route closures.
The line between Girvan in South Ayrshire and Stranraer in Dumfries and Galloway is the only route still shut on Wednesday and Network Rail Scotland engineers are working to repair damage.
ScotRail said replacement buses are operating between Ayr and Stranraer and advised people to check the train company’s app before travelling.
The yellow alert which comes into force on Wednesday evening warns that icy patches may lead to some travel disruption on Thursday morning, and a risk of injury from slips and falls.
It covers the Highlands, Moray, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen, the Western Isles and part of Argyll and Bute.
The weather warnings in place last Friday during Storm Eowyn included a red “danger to life” alert 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.
Justice Secretary Angela Constance has praised the “remarkable progress” made by energy companies to restore electricity supplies to those who lost power during the storm.
Speaking on Tuesday at Holyrood about the storm and the recovery operations afterwards, she said: “This has been and continues to be an extremely complex and protracted incident – every business, home and individual was affected by an amber or red weather warning.”
She thanked those who had followed the advice to stay at home, saying by doing so “people have prevented further loss of life”.
But Ms Constance said: “No amount of warning could prevent significant damage and destruction from a storm of this scale.”
