Edinburgh, Oct 6, (PA Media/dpa/GNA) – Tens of thousands of homes in the UK remain without power, and weather warnings of high winds remain in place in some areas, as Storm Amy slowly pulls away.
There will also be some disruption to rail services on Sunday, as work continues to repair damage after the storm swept in on Friday.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), the distribution network operator for the north of Scotland, said 34,000 customers remained without power due to the storm as of 8:30 pm (1930 GMT) on Saturday, while almost 50,000 had been reconnected.
It said that hundreds of tree cutters and engineers have been clearing routes to reach network damage and carrying out repairs where possible, and this work will continue from first light on Sunday.
A yellow warning of wind is in place for the east and north-east of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland and until midday on Sunday.
The Met Office said: “Strong west to north-westerly winds are expected to continue across the Northern Isles and also affect parts of northern and eastern mainland Scotland through the first part of Sunday, as Storm Amy slowly pulls away to the east.
“Gusts of 60 to 70 mph [96-113 km/h] are possible through the early hours, especially in more exposed areas.
“Winds should generally ease from the west through the morning although they will remain strong over, and to the lee of, mountains for some time afterwards.”
It comes after the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for wind covering the whole of the UK on Saturday, while an amber weather warning of “damaging” winds was in force in northern Scotland until 9 pm that day.
The Met Office said wind gusts reached 154.5 kilometres per hour across northern Scotland on Saturday, where Cassley saw 84.6 millimetres of rain fall in 24 hours.
Weather warnings were also in place across much of the country on Friday, when the storm first hit.
SSEN said hundreds of additional team members were working on its response to the storm, which it said saw wind speeds reach 154.5 km/h at lower levels on the island of Tiree on Friday, and gusts of more than 160 km/h in exposed areas.
The company said the strength of the winds has had a “considerable impact” on the network.
Nik Wheeler, SSEN’s head of customer operations for the north of Scotland, said: “I want to reassure our customers that every resource at our disposal is being directed at the reconnection operation, and our efforts to ensure people are kept well informed and looked after while these essential repairs are carried out.”
The storm also caused transport disruption with ferries cancelled, flights affected and roads and railway lines blocked by fallen trees.
ScotRail said that the storm caused “extensive damage” to the rail network and that disruption will continue into Sunday, though services will be running across the majority of the network after “round-the-clock work” by Network Rail colleagues.
There will be no services on the Oban/Crianlarich and Fort William/Mallaig West Highland Line, nor on the Far North Inverness/Wick/Kyle lines.
It said that due to infrastructure damage, it does not expect services until early on Sunday afternoon on the Inverness to Elgin, Glasgow Queen Street to Cumbernauld, Glasgow Queen Street to Alloa and Glasgow to Wemyss Bay routes.
ScotRail said: “The impact of Storm Amy has been significant and we’re sorry for the inconvenience caused to customers since Friday.
“The safety of our customers and staff is always the priority during these extreme weather events.”
Network Rail Scotland said that more than 280 separate incidents had been recorded by Saturday evening and that teams were “working around the clock” to repair extensive damage caused by Storm Amy.
National Rail warned journeys could continue be disrupted across Scotland, England and Wales on Sunday.
In England, the A628 Woodhead Pass reopened between Woodhead and Langsett on Sunday morning after an earlier collision, but it remained closed to high-sided and vulnerable vehicles because of strong winds.
The “vast majority” of properties without power in Northern Ireland will have it restored on Sunday, crews have advised.
There were 3,000 properties still without power on Sunday morning, as crews from NIE Networks continued their clean-up from Storm Amy.
At the peak, the storm caused a loss of supply to approximately 65,000 customers.
Alex Houston, Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) Networks operations manager, said his team was doing its “very best to get as many as possible reconnected today.”
He said: “At this stage we would encourage anyone who has not yet reported their power cut to contact the customer centre on 03457 643 643 so we can ensure all faults are reported and in the restoration process.”
All inland weather warnings from the storm have lapsed.
In the Republic of Ireland, there were 13,000 properties without power on Sunday morning.
The ESB had warned that it could take until “early next week” for all customers to be reconnected.
Irish police said a man died in a “weather-related” incident in the Letterkenny area of County Donegal shortly after 4:15 pm on Friday.
GNA