Thousands of homes face fourth night without power in wake of Storm Amy

Nearly 5,000 homes in Scotland face a fourth night without power in the wake of Storm Amy, which battered the country on Friday and into the weekend.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said that, as of 4.30pm on Monday, its teams had reconnected 83,000 households and that work is under way to restore power for 4,900.

The transmission network company said: “Our huge operation to reconnect the last few thousand customers still without power due to Storm Amy’s destructive winds is progressing well, with many more communities reconnected today.

“Several hundred team members are working for a third full day to fix a total of more than 700 network faults, and ensure customers are kept informed and supported.”

SSEN said hot meals are still being provided in communities affected by power cuts, and that so far more than 17,000 free hot meals had been served by food vans alone – with many local businesses also opening their doors on SSEN’s behalf.

The company said its efforts to restore power are being increasingly concentrated in parts of the central and west Highlands, in areas of Argyll and Bute and on Mull, where it said “challenging network faults are still being addressed”.

It added that more resources are arriving in these areas to speed up this part of the power restoration process.

Storm Amy brought “extremely damaging” winds when it began to hit Ireland and the UK on Friday, with gusts of almost 100mph recorded in some exposed coastal areas.

Nik Wheeler, SSEN’s head of customer operations for the north of Scotland, said on Monday afternoon: “The third full day of our storm response is also the third day without power for a number of our customers.

“I know this has been a challenging time, and I want to thank people for their patience and understanding.

“We’re working as safely and quickly as we can, and the pace of our restoration operation is picking up further speed as weather conditions improve, and the access to damage locations is cleared.

“However, the reality of what we’re finding once we make full assessments of the damage is considerable; in many locations, there are several issues on the same stretch of the network, and all these need to be fixed before homes can be reconnected.

“This is why some households have been contacted by us with an update to their reconnection time.

“While we complete these essential network repairs, I encourage people to use the free hot meal provision we’re providing across affected communities, and to take advantage of our support package, by claiming reimbursement for accommodation and food if they’re eligible.”

Storm Amy also caused widespread disruption to the rail network over the weekend, with more than 420 incidents reported, including fallen trees and debris on the tracks.

However on Monday afternoon ScotRail said only the far north line to Wick remained closed, with all other services having been restored thanks to an “immense” recovery effort.

On Monday, First Minister John Swinney described Storm Amy as an “illustration of climate problem” that showed the need for action.

Speaking to the PA news agency, he said: “The fact that we’re having storms of this nature, and we’re experiencing the degree of disruption that we are facing, is a practical demonstration of the effects of climate change.

“These storms are happening more frequently. They are disrupting power supply, they are disrupting people’s lives as a consequence.”