Fiercest weather in a decade, with winds of up to 165mph, disrupts homes, travel, schools and businesses
Children sprayed by rough waves at Cardswell Bay, Gourock, on Thursday. Photograph: Graham Stuart/AFP/Getty Images
The clear-up of devastation caused by hurricane-strength winds and violent storms in Scotland has begun in earnest, with the Scottish government warning that some people may be without electricity until the weekend.
Engineers were urgently trying on Friday to reconnect more than 70,000 homes which were without power, some travel services were still disrupted and councils were clearing debris from roads after the fiercest storms in a decade hit the country.
Most schools, businesses and council offices that had been forced to close early on Thursday afternoon reopened. Winds – which reached 165mph on Thursday – eased, with the worst weather confined to north-east Scotland and the Shetlands.
Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were open but warned of severe delays and cancellations, while Scotrail services were still delayed across Scotland with cancellations expected on routes from Inverness to Aberdeen, Gourock to Glasgow Central, and Oban and Fort William to Glasgow Queen Street.
Roads were beginning to be cleared, with police saying conditions had improved across the Western Isles and the Highlands. However, many roads were still blocked by fallen trees and surface water.
Overnight, severe winds washed away part of a causeway road on the Orkney island of Hoy; the road surface of the Ayre, which links the communities of Hoy and South Walls, broke up after 10pm on Thursday and the road remained impassable on Friday.
The strong winds forced the closure of every major bridge in Scotland including the Forth road bridge between Edinburgh and Fife, the Erskine bridge connecting Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire, the Skye bridge and the Tay road bridge.
Orkney suffered widespread flooding and damage; all schools in Orkney, Caithness and on the north coast of Sutherland remained shut.
Fourteen schools closed in Aberdeenshire and some schools in Angus, Argyll and Bute, Shetland, Stirling and the Western Isles were also without power.
Aberdeen was still suffering with problems affecting telephone networks and internet connections. Several families had to be evacuated from a tenement in the Kincorth area after the gable end of a house collapsed on to a car, but no one was injured.
Scottish Power said it had reconnected 95% of its customers, while Scottish Hydro said about 50,000 customers were without power on Thursday night and it expected the number to increase before things got better.
Guy Jefferson, operations director of Scottish Power, said about 2,000 of its customers had no power on Friday morning. Ayrshire and Fife were the worst affected, with about 500 homes in each area still cut off. He said the company was engaged in a "gigantic effort" to restore power, and had 600 staff out from dawn aiming to reconnect customers by the end of the day. "In some places the wind was so strong they could not open the doors of their vans. The wind pinned their doors closed. The difficulties were huge," he told BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme. "With these conditions – about once in 15 years – there was bound to be some disruption but we are hopeful of getting everybody back online today, and it would be a huge achievement if we manage to do that."
Meanwhile, the Scottish SPCA animal welfare charity reported that a number of seal pups had been injured in the storms, with many washed away from their birthing grounds. Wildlife rescue centre manager Colin Seddon said: "Several of the pups we've rescued have been washed off their birthing grounds by stormy weather and have arrived with various injuries as a result of being bashed against rocks. Numerous others have been found in distress on our shores, often underweight, dehydrated and weak."
Scotland's deputy first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who has been chairing the Scottish government's resilience committee, told the BBC: "While the worst of the weather has subsided across the central belt, other areas of the country are still experiencing severe conditions. Contractors are working hard to resolve remaining issues on our roads and with power supplies. I would urge all members of the public to continue to take care and heed advice from police and travel authorities."
Engineers were urgently trying on Friday to reconnect more than 70,000 homes which were without power, some travel services were still disrupted and councils were clearing debris from roads after the fiercest storms in a decade hit the country.
Most schools, businesses and council offices that had been forced to close early on Thursday afternoon reopened. Winds – which reached 165mph on Thursday – eased, with the worst weather confined to north-east Scotland and the Shetlands.
Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were open but warned of severe delays and cancellations, while Scotrail services were still delayed across Scotland with cancellations expected on routes from Inverness to Aberdeen, Gourock to Glasgow Central, and Oban and Fort William to Glasgow Queen Street.
Roads were beginning to be cleared, with police saying conditions had improved across the Western Isles and the Highlands. However, many roads were still blocked by fallen trees and surface water.
Overnight, severe winds washed away part of a causeway road on the Orkney island of Hoy; the road surface of the Ayre, which links the communities of Hoy and South Walls, broke up after 10pm on Thursday and the road remained impassable on Friday.
The strong winds forced the closure of every major bridge in Scotland including the Forth road bridge between Edinburgh and Fife, the Erskine bridge connecting Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire, the Skye bridge and the Tay road bridge.
Orkney suffered widespread flooding and damage; all schools in Orkney, Caithness and on the north coast of Sutherland remained shut.
Fourteen schools closed in Aberdeenshire and some schools in Angus, Argyll and Bute, Shetland, Stirling and the Western Isles were also without power.
Aberdeen was still suffering with problems affecting telephone networks and internet connections. Several families had to be evacuated from a tenement in the Kincorth area after the gable end of a house collapsed on to a car, but no one was injured.
Scottish Power said it had reconnected 95% of its customers, while Scottish Hydro said about 50,000 customers were without power on Thursday night and it expected the number to increase before things got better.
Guy Jefferson, operations director of Scottish Power, said about 2,000 of its customers had no power on Friday morning. Ayrshire and Fife were the worst affected, with about 500 homes in each area still cut off. He said the company was engaged in a "gigantic effort" to restore power, and had 600 staff out from dawn aiming to reconnect customers by the end of the day. "In some places the wind was so strong they could not open the doors of their vans. The wind pinned their doors closed. The difficulties were huge," he told BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme. "With these conditions – about once in 15 years – there was bound to be some disruption but we are hopeful of getting everybody back online today, and it would be a huge achievement if we manage to do that."
Meanwhile, the Scottish SPCA animal welfare charity reported that a number of seal pups had been injured in the storms, with many washed away from their birthing grounds. Wildlife rescue centre manager Colin Seddon said: "Several of the pups we've rescued have been washed off their birthing grounds by stormy weather and have arrived with various injuries as a result of being bashed against rocks. Numerous others have been found in distress on our shores, often underweight, dehydrated and weak."
Scotland's deputy first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who has been chairing the Scottish government's resilience committee, told the BBC: "While the worst of the weather has subsided across the central belt, other areas of the country are still experiencing severe conditions. Contractors are working hard to resolve remaining issues on our roads and with power supplies. I would urge all members of the public to continue to take care and heed advice from police and travel authorities."