Storm Arwen: Frustration as thousands remain without power

Engineers have continued efforts to restore power

Thousands of people in Scotland still have no power in their homes after Storm Arwen caused "catastrophic" damage to the electricity network.

Residents in parts of the rural north-east of Scotland, Perthshire, Angus and southern and central Scotland are still awaiting reconnection.

Some have told BBC Scotland they are struggling to get reliable updates from their energy providers.

One man in his 80s said he and his wife felt "completely abandoned".

Energy provider SSEN said that as of 21:00 on Tuesday, power had been returned to more than 118,000 customers, but 9,500 remained without, with Aberdeenshire remaining the worst affected.

Scottish Power Energy Networks - which covers the southern part of the country - said it expected 1,000 properties to be without power overnight in the Borders after reconnecting about 1,000 Borders homes on Tuesday, along with 300 in Dumfries and Galloway.

The energy firms have apologised to those affected.

Power lines were brought down by trees, including in Ballater

Further bad news came as the Met Office advised there was a risk of potential for wet, cold and windy conditions over the next 24 hours, including northerly winds of up to 60mph.

It said damage could occur where trees and property had been destabilised by the winds during Storm Arwen.

Sepa has also warned of the potential for high tides and overtopping on the east coast at high tide - around midday on Wednesday. The flood barriers in Eyemouth will be deployed as a result.

Nicola Sturgeon tweeted on Tuesday afternoon saying those facing the "almost intolerable" situation would receive help as soon as possible.

Kirsten Bax, who lives near Thornhill in Dumfries and Galloway, said it was the worst incident she could remember.

"We live in the country, we quite often get power cuts over the winter and it is usually one night or two nights," she said.

"This is now the fourth night and it is the worst I have ever had and I have been living here for 30 years, it is ridiculous.

"You can't get in touch with Scottish Power, or SP Energy Networks - on the fault line you get an answering machine or something.

"You can't speak to a person to actually say what is going on on the ground."

Lena Rose said it was the worst she could remember

Lena Rose, 70, from Sauchen in Aberdeenshire, said: "We've been here 40 years, it's never been as bad as this. Now it's six nights coming up.

"We've got the coal fire and camping stove, so we can boil water and keep ourselves warm. We're just living in the living room, you can't have a shower. It's frustrating."

• Thousands spend fourth night without power

• 'We can't go another night without power'

Brian Allanson, who lives near Lockerbie, said he was originally told power would return at 16:00 on Saturday but it has been repeatedly put back.

"You can't speak to a human being, the broadband's down here, we can't get any information, we are absolutely isolated," he said.

"My wife and I - we are both in our mid 80s - we feel as though we have just been completely abandoned."

In Aberdeenshire, all 170 schools remained closed on Tuesday as safety was assessed.

Rest centres were open again in Banff, Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Stonehaven, Ellon, Inverurie, Westhill, Portlethen, Huntly and Turriff.

Jane Grieve, who lives in Kincardine O'Neil, told the BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland her power went off just before 18:00 on Friday.

"We found an old phone in our garage and plugged it into the wall, managed two calls and then it dropped out. We could have been on Mars," she said.

"A lot of people lost their water as well. We were lucky at least we had water.

"We went to bed four times in freezing cold, wearing a hat, pairs of socks, large jumper.

"We occasionally get power cuts, I think this has been the longest in my life. This is on a new scale. Hundreds of trees have gone over. It's felt a wee bit like Armageddon."

This was the scene in the Dunecht area on Tuesday

SSEN said it always endeavoured to give accurate times to customers so they could plan and prepare.

"Given the extreme nature of Storm Arwen and the extensive damage to the electricity it has been difficult for us to give these estimates with real clarity and we'd like to apologise to customers who have seen their times pushed out," the firm said.

"As we work to restore the remaining homes without power, we now have a clearer picture of what we need to deal with and the restoration times provided now are as accurate as they can be."

It said Friday's storm had caused "catastrophic damage", three times greater than that caused by the Beast from the East in 2018

SP Energy Networks said its staff were working "tirelessly" to reconnect power quickly and safely.

'Complex cases'

"We apologise to all of our customers who have continued to have been affected by the damage caused by Storm Arwen, we understand the stress and inconvenience this has caused many households and we appreciate everyone's patience whilst we continue to try to resolve the ongoing issues on the power network," a spokeswoman said.

"Storm Arwen has caused some of the worst damage we have experienced in over 15 years and far worse than the previous weather events. In many areas, the damage has been severe due to fallen trees and other wind-blown debris and engineers are also dealing road closures and access challenges making some of our repairs even harder.

"We are offering affected customers hot food and drinks and hotels for anyone who needs this and have fitted generators to customers most in need. We have also been visiting customers to support where individual needs are being identified. Please rest assured we are doing everything we can to reconnect those still off supply as quickly and as safely as we can."

Deputy First Minister John Swinney updated the Scottish Parliament on the government's response to the storm.

He said: "To give a sense of the scale of his event, Storm Arwen has been a more significant event than the Beast from the East in 2018, requiring a complexity of response that we have not seen for a number of years."

He added: "My expectation is that most of the remaining customers' supply will be restored today.

"But I regret, for some of the more complex cases, supply is unlikely to be restored until later in the week."

Mr Swinney added that a full review of the preparations made for the storm would be undertaken in a bid to learn any lessons from the way it was handled.