Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Power company still on alert for bad weather

Engineers repair powerlines between Balnain and Cannich
Engineers repair powerlines between Balnain and Cannich

Power giant Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution (SHEPD) says it is still on high alert for bad weather despite managing to reconnect supplies after severe storms.

Engineers endured atrocious conditions as they battled to repair the network.

Staff restored power to around 120,000 customers – many of which been left without electricity for several days after high winds, blizzards and lightning.

Large parts of the Highlands and Western Isles became impassable and the electricity network inaccessible to engineering teams. On Friday the network was battered by winds of 100mph for eight consecutive hours.

SSE  preparing for storms
SSE preparing for storms

On the same day, numbers of staff were increased to 1,300.

SHEPD was forced to seek help from the Coastguard when plane, ferry and helicopter operators stopped providing services because of the severity of the weather.

This included airlifting three engineers to the island of Coll to carry out repairs.

The engineers will return to the mainland on a scheduled flight.

Alan Broadbent, director of engineering, said: “Our customers have been tremendous. They had to endure appalling disruption to their electricity supply.

“I would like to thank them for their patience and understanding, and again apologise to them.

“I am also immensely proud of our engineers. They live and work in the communities they serve, so it was a matter of personal pride and satisfaction for them to bring power back on as soon as possible. They did this by battling some of the worst weather conditions I have ever known.”

The company said that if there are customers off supply, it is likely to be intentional as engineers make permanent repairs to the network.

A fleet of catering and welfare vans was mobilised to the worst hit areas.

Around 20,000 free hot meals and 30,000 hot and cold drinks were provided at more than 31 locations, through mobile catering facilities and also by hiring local restaurants, hotels and food businesses.