Energy minister Michael Shanks visited an emergency centre in his constituency dealing with the thousands of homes without power following the devastating impact of Storm Eowyn.
The Rutherglen MP met staff at the SP Energy Networks hub in Cambuslang where repair efforts have been co-ordinated since Friday’s winds of up to 100mph across Lanarkshire and much of central and southern Scotland left more than 191,000 properties without electricity.
He told how constituents in areas including Cambuslang, Blantyre and Uddingston had been among those affected at the peak of the storm, and added on social media that engineers had been “working flat out to restore power” since the weekend, amid “very difficult conditions, often with multiple faults on lines”.
Around 5000 customers across Scotland remained without power at lunchtime on Monday, with SP Energy Networks providing hot food vans over all three days for residents “in the areas most impacted by the storm” – including facilities at Lesmahagow Road in Lanark and at Annathill in North Lanarkshire.
SP Energy Networks posted on Facebook: “Energy minister Michael Shanks visited one of our emergency action centres at our Cambuslang depot where teams are co-ordinating efforts to rebuild areas of the network damaged by Storm Eowyn.
“At the peak of the storm, the hurricane-speed winds caused more than 191,000 properties to lose power in central and southern Scotland. Hundreds of engineers have been working across the country from 6am on Friday morning to restore power as quickly and safely as possible, often in unfavourable weather conditions.
“Our teams have been using helicopters to assess damage and identify faults. Additional resources have arrived from around the UK to support the herculean effort to get power back to customers.
“Anticipating the scale of damage from the storm, we mobilised additional customer service colleagues who have taken over 72,000 calls since the storm hit on Friday – the equivalent to two months’ worth of calls in two days.
“More than 200,000 text messages have also been issued proactively to customers on the Priority Services Register to offer advice, support and practical help dependent on their circumstances.”
Some of Lanarkshire’s train services were restored after three days of line closures as Network Rail worked to clear “very significant damage” including 120 fallen trees and flying debris from 500 incidents across the tracks – but services from Motherwell, Larkhall and Cumbernauld to Dalmuir via Glasgow Central low level still remained largely cancelled on Monday, with limited services running on the route and starting or terminating at Rutherglen.
All First Bus services in the area were cancelled on Friday; while all burgundy food waste bin collections across South Lanarkshire have been cancelled for this week as teams work to address a backlog following Friday’s cancellations and ongoing blockages on local roads.
Police Scotland confirmed that they had attended 1900 weather-related incidents across Scotland on Friday, while the Scottish Fire and Rescue service took 700 calls at its three control rooms by 4pm on Friday.
They attended 300 incidents road traffic collisions, loose and unsafe structures and damage to properties from falling debris and trees – adding: “Several fire appliances were damaged by falling trees; however, the damage was minor, and no firefighters were injured.”
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