Coastguard teams recognised for efforts during Shetland power cuts

By Ellie Milne

January 26 2023, 4:49 pm

Senior Coastal Operations Officer (SCOO) Colin Willis, Chief Inspector Stuart Clemenson, Area Commander Dave Sweeney and SCOO Dan O'Connor at an informal ceremony to hand over the Certificate of Recognition. Image: HM Coastguard.

Coastguard teams in Shetland have been recognised for their work during major power cuts on the island.

Frozen conditions and heavy snowfall left thousands of homes without power for several days in mid-December.

A multi-agency response was put into action to support communities while engineers worked to restore power.

Dave Sweeney, coastal operations area commander for Shetland, has said partnerships have never been stronger on the islands.

Last week, he was presented with a certificate in recognition of the whole service’s contribution after responding to a request for help from the police.

“It was exceptional,” Mr Sweeney said. “Every coastguard rescue team in Shetland was involved at some point during the major incident, they all played their part.

“I can’t praise our coastguard rescue officers enough, they were spectacular and I am so pleased to see the police have also recognised this – our working relationship with our emergency service partners has never been stronger.”

A number of power lines across Shetland had to be repaired following the spell of sever weather in December Image: SSEN.

Major incident response

Coastguard rescue teams from Sumburgh, Lerwick, Whalsay, Walls, Hillswick, Baltasound and Mid Yell were sent to help the police between December 13 and 18.

They were able to use four-wheel drives to reach stranded motorists and remote communities, as well as helping to clear a blockage of almost 40 vehicles at Tresta.

Teams also carried out welfare checks on behalf of the police and health service, and dispatched the helicopter from Sumburgh for a missing person search.

“The snow came down that quickly that you couldn’t avoid it,” Mr Sweeney added.

“It was chaos on the roads, so many people were immediately stuck and needing help and our 4×4 Coastguard vehicles were critical to incident response.

“The emergency services had to work together to ensure our local communities stayed safe and it meant my teams had a very different month to normal.

“We were deploying in support of our partners to complete welfare checks or run fuel and medical supplies as well as towing cars out of the snow, it was an urgent situation and we had to really pull together to keep people safe.

“It’s lovely to receive the recognition and to be able to show my teams how much they matter to the local community.”