THOUSANDS of homes were left without power after Scotland was lashed with heavy rain and winds of up to 70mph.
About 5000 households, the majority in Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway, were cut off yesterday as storms swept in from the south-west. ScottishPower said 3800 of its customers in the area had lost their electricity supply, along with about 1200 Scottish and Southern Energy customers in Angus, Orkney, Inverness, Aberdeenshire and Oban.
Engineers were expected to have restored power to the majority of homes by last night, but ScottishPower said some supplies were likely to remain off until today.
Rail services between Aberdeen and Dundee were disrupted because of signalling problems, while trains between Largs and Ardrossan faced delays and cancellations after overhead power lines at Saltcoats were damaged as the high tide was whipped up by strong winds where the line runs close to the shore. Heavy rain in Inverness also caused a landslip in Bruichnain, leading to disruption for services using the Far North and Kyle lines, while poor weather in the south of England led to speed restrictions affecting cross-border East Coast services.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency said rain falling on saturated ground could lead to flooding in low-lying agricultural areas, mainly in Tayside, but the risk to towns and cities was low. Northern England and Wales bore the brunt of the storms. A 109mph gust was recorded at Aberdaron in north Wales on Thursday, while 13,000 homes in the south of England and Wales were still without electricity yesterday, some for a fifth day.
Prime Minister David Cameron met an angry flood victim as he visited a village seriously affected by the storms. A woman complained her local council had done nothing to help villagers in Yalding in Kent, where homes were severely damaged in the storms. In an on-camera exchange, the woman said she had been left stranded in her home with no electricity.
"We still have no electric," she said. "We have been trying to contact [the council], but they have all decided to go on their holidays. Nothing." The PM appeared rattled as he tried to defuse the confrontation by promising to contact the council himself.
There are no weather warnings for today or tomorrow.
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