Households across Perth and Kinross remained without power yesterday (Monday) – more than two days after Storm Eowyn battered the region.
Residents in areas east of Murrrayshall, south of Burrelton, Moulin, Fortingall and east of Crook of Devon have been left with no heat or electricty following the severe weather on Friday which swept across the country causing significant damage.
SSEN confirmed that as of 7am yesterday, they had 2,700 customers awaiting reconnection across its north of Scotland licence area after reconnecting almost 30,000 households on Saturday.
The Met Office issued a rare red weather warning for wind across large parts on Scotland on January 25, with Perth and Kinross issued with an amber warning for wind a and yellow warning for snow.
During the storm, three Scottish Fire and Rescue appliances attended an incident in Perth Old High Street where a roof was ripped off a property.
Some roads in the region were still closed as of Sunday, January 26, in the aftermath of the storm including: Perth High Street, A91 Yetts of Muckhart and Kenmore to Weem.
Schools and early learning centres, which had been closed on Friday, reopened on Monday.
Perth’s Ace Taxis posted on Facebook on Saturday afternoon: “Big shout out to all at SFRS who attended for hours the scene in the Old High Street last night in atrocious weather where a roof was blown off the house across the road from our office.
“Bigger shout out too the turntable ladder crew who carried out a roof top inspection in that wind and rain and evaluated the structural damage and further risk assessment off the property and the street.
“It is very reassuring that when things like this happen you ‘guys’ are there in any conditions making our community safer.
“Lastly our thoughts are with our poor neighbours across the street who had to go through this traumatic event.”
A Moulin resident posted on social media early Sunday that a few households in the village had been without power since 5pm on Friday adding: “Since then we have had no heat or light, which is fairly grim.”
According to a statement on the SSE website the remaining households would have power restored by late Monday.
Anyone still awaiting reconnection whose fault was not listed on the SSEN PowerTrack app or website was advised to contact 105 to ensure it is brought to the company’s attention.
SSEN director of customer operations for the north of Scotland, Andy Smith, said Sunday: “I’m very grateful to our customers for their understanding and patience while we’ve mounted a huge response to this particularly damaging storm in very challenging conditions.
“Our work to reconnect customers is going to plan, and some people may have seen their power back on sooner than expected.
“We’re focused on getting the remaining repairs done, and everyone reconnected as safely and as quickly as we can.
“We’re providing customers with estimations of when their supplies will be restored that are as realistic and accurate as possible, and I hope people take us up on the offer of free hot meals we’re laying on in several communities – and the other support we can provide – while restoration work continues.
“Several hundred engineers are working hard right now to fix faults safely and quickly, and we’ve had a group arrive from the south-east of England this morning to support our own response.
“I’d like to thank our own teams, and those of our contract partners for their hard work and support over the past few days.”
A spokesperson for SSEN said yesterday afternoon: “We’re in close contact with our most vulnerable customers who are still awaiting reconnection and providing dedicated support where it’s required.
“Our Customer Contact Centre has responded to tens of thousands of calls and messages via social media.
“Since the storm began, customers have been waiting on the phone to speak to us for around one minute on average.
“Our customers have been provided with realistic estimates on when they can expect to be reconnected.
“The vast majority of these times have not moved from when they were initially provided, and in some cases we’ve been able to reconnect customers ahead of estimates.
“When circumstances require them to be changed, our customer contact centre team will be getting in touch with any affected customers directly.
“We estimate to have most of the customers still awaiting reconnection back on by the end of Monday, and in the relatively few cases where this might not be achievable, our welfare and customer care teams will be in touch.”