Thousands of customers have spent a second night without power after Storm Floris swept across Scotland on Monday. The powerful storm brought winds of up to 90mph, leaving tens of thousands of people in darkness.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Distribution said that as of 8.30am on Wednesday, 68,000 customers have been reconnected. Work continues to reconnect a further 3,900 customers who remain without power.
Engineers work to restore supplies
The company said hundreds of engineers have been working on the network since first light on Wednesday morning to reconnect homes. It said 95 per cent of customers who lost supplies due to Storm Floris have now been reconnected.
Andy Smith, SSEN's director of customer operations for the north of Scotland, said late on Tuesday: "Storm Floris has been unusually powerful, especially for a storm at this time of year. It's brought down many trees that have endured several previous storms, and it's caused some network damage."
Customers thanked for patience
He added: "I'd like to thank our customers for their understanding and patience while we go about this massive task; we're doing our best to give people realistic, informed estimates of when we'll get their power back on. I'm also grateful to the teams from our contract partners and other network operators for supporting our effort."
An amber weather warning was in place for an area stretching from the central belt to northern Scotland for much of Monday. The rest of the country was covered by a yellow weather warning.
Rail network faces disruption
The storm also caused significant disruption to Scotland's rail network. Network Rail said teams have been working "tirelessly" to repair damage to infrastructure such as overhead lines and to clear fallen trees and debris from the tracks.
The storm also led to delays in exam results being delivered to pupils in some island communities on SQA results day on Tuesday.
(PA) Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
