'We were completely cut off': Locals count cost of days-long Storm Amy power cut

Homes and businesses say they were “completely cut off” for days following Storm Amy, which battered Scotland with strong winds and heavy rain.

The first named storm of the season brought “extremely damaging” winds and gusts of up to 100mph.

The Met Office issued an amber warning that was in place from Friday until Saturday, as well as yellow warnings for wind and rain across the weekend.

The Boatshed lost trade over the weekend due to the power being out. STV News

On the west coast, businesses such as The Boatshed in Lochgoilhead lost three days of trade after losing power.

Café owner Neil Patterson says they didn’t get an “awful lot of communication” around the outage, and they were “completely cut off”.

He told STV News: “We would have discouraged people from travelling, even if we stayed open on Saturday. But Sunday was probably okay.

“We almost completely depend on day trippers now, as we get towards the off-season, and people won’t travel.

“I wouldn’t leave Glasgow if I thought there was a chance that the power might go off again. It puts a lot of doubt into customers’ minds, they might lose a bit of faith.

“That is the challenge for us and everyone else in the area. We’ve lost money and stock, and staff have lost hours.”

Scotland

More than 4,900 homes without power for fourth night after Storm Amy

SSEN said that as of 5pm on Monday, their teams had reconnected 83,000 households and work is under way to restore power for thousands more.

Some homes are without power for a fifth day are in the Highlands, while some communities in Argyll and Bute are also waiting to be reconnected.

Welfare vans were set up in areas affected by outages.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said that as of 9.30am on Tuesday, supplies to more than 86,000 homes have been restored.

A further 1,900 homes are still be reconnected, mostly in pockets of the Great Glen, the Fort William area and the Ardnamurchan peninsula.

Hundreds of engineers are out on the network alongside tree-cutting specialists to resolve ongoing access issues, which have been exacerbated by recent heavy rain.

SSEN said it expects the vast majority of those remaining homes without power to be reconnected by Tuesday evening.

Nik Wheeler, SSEN’s head of customer operations for the north of Scotland, said: “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.”