Storm Floris: Storm Floris disruption continues as Met Office predicts more stormy weather for Scotland

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) described Storm Floris as the “most-damaging summer storm in recent memory” with thousands of homes in the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire hit by outages.

The SSEN said it had restored power to 50,000 homes and was continuing to work to restore power supplies to 22,000 more in the north and north east of Scotland on Tuesday. It has set up a number of food-vans in areas where people are still awaiting reconnection.

The company said: “Now the winds have died down and moved into the North Sea, it’s become safer for our field teams to get to faults on the network, although strong gusts are still forecast for today, and we’ll be monitoring the forecast closely.

“Our teams worked for as long as the light permitted last night, and were deployed again early this morning, with the support of helicopters to assess the network from above.”

It added: “This has been a particularly damaging storm, and we’ll be working hard to reconnect customers as safely and quickly as we can – but it will take time.”

Travel disruption ongoing

Meanwhile, ScotRail said suspended routes would need to be checked before they could be reopened with disruption expected until around 4pm on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning it said many routes had reopened, but some in the North are still being worked on due to fallen trees and damage to overhead wires caused by the high winds. It is urging people to check for latest updates on the ScotRail website before travelling.

Network Rail also issued an update on Tuesday morning saying it was working to clear fallen trees on northern routes. Just before 8am, it said it had reopened 30 out of 34 routes. Work is still ongoing to reopen routes from Perth to Inverness, and from Inverness to Aberdeen, Wick, Thurso and Kyle of Lochalsh.

Caledonian Sleeper Services were cancelled on Monday night while LNER said services north of Newcastle could be delayed or cancelled on Tuesday and TransPennine Express said no services will run north of Carlisle or Newcastle before 9am.

The Scottish Government said there were 119 incidents on the rail network caused by Storm Floris on Monday, including 75 tree-related ones.

CalMac Ferries, which operates services on Scotland’s west coast, is also facing ongoing disruption on Tuesday, with 17 of 30 routes affected. It is warning passengers that morning sailings are liable to disruption or cancellation at short notice, while some have been cancelled for the remainder of the day.

A yellow weather warning for wind remained in place until 8am this morning in Orkney and Shetland, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands.

On the roads, Traffic Scotland said the Tyne Bridge and Forth Road Bridge had reopened overnight.

Exam results delays expected

Students across Scotland are due to receive SQA exam results on Tuesday, although Storm Floris has caused a delay in some parts of the country.

The SQA said that Royal Mail deliveries to the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland were impacted, and that other delays might occur at short notice.

The authority said if any affected pupils wish to know their results, they should contact their school in the first instance for help. It said it does not anticipate any impact on the MySQA text and email service.

The Scottish Government’s Resilience Room held a meeting on Monday night to help decide an appropriate response to the storm.

The meeting was attended by government ministers and representatives from the Met Office, Police Scotland, Transport Scotland, SEPA, transport and utilities companies and further resilience partners.

Angela Constance, Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, said: “As expected, there has been significant disruption, particularly across the travel networks.

“Power cuts are affecting a significant number of properties, and while utilities companies are working hard to reconnect supply in the face of challenging conditions, this will undoubtedly take some time to complete.

“The recovery period – both to reconnect homes to power and get transport back to normal – will require some time to clear the debris.

“We will continue to receive updates throughout Tuesday.”

More stormy weather to come

The Met Office said wet and windy weather is likely to return to the north west of the UK late on Wednesday and into Thursday.

Met Office deputy chief meteorologist, Mike Silverstone, said: “While the system later this week won’t carry as many impacts as Storm Floris, a further period of unseasonable wet and windy weather is on the way late on Wednesday and into Thursday for those in north-western parts of the UK.

“An area of low pressure from the west will bring some strong winds, especially for those in western parts of Scotland.

“Gusts over 50mph are possible for a time. Some heavy rain will also accompany the strong winds, with up to 30mm possible.”