ROADS were closed, properties flooded and ferries cancelled as gale-force winds and torrential rain wreaked havoc in the Highlands and islands. Eighteen homes in Shetland were cut off when a landslide blocked a single-track road on the islands yesterday morning. Firefighters pumped flood water out of properties in Caithness and on Orkney. They also prevented two pine trees which had been blown over from landing on a house in Caithness.
Almost 750 homes on Shetland were left without electricity for several hours yesterday morning. And a coastguard rescue team was called out when a dozen sheep were stranded in a swollen Caithness river – 11 were saved but one was washed away.
Meanwhile, snow covered the mountains in the Cairngorms, and the A95 Aberlour-Grantown road was closed for several hours after a black Vauxhall Corsa crashed into a power pole at Bridge of Derrybeg at about 6am. The Met Office said yesterday that the worst of the weather had passed by 3pm.
But more rain was expected in Caithness and the northern isles overnight, albeit not as heavy as the downpours which caused chaos at the weekend.
About an inch of rain fell on Shetland in 24 hours from Saturday afternoon and at around 7am yesterday police were called when mud cascaded down Scrae Field and blocked the road into Wester Quarff.
The fire brigade said the first weather-related call was received just before 6.50am yesterday, with a report of a flooded house at Halkirk in Caithness.
Two appliances from Thurso went to the scene and crews used a main pump and several smaller pumps to clear water from the semi-detached property in Church Street.
A spokesman said: “Firefighters left the scene at 9.15am and we received a call to the adjoining property at 9.26am.
“A crew from Wick attended. They used pumps to lower the water level and dug a trench and built a wall to divert the water away from the property. They left at 11.02am.”
Just a minute after the first call-out to Halkirk, the fire service was asked to deal with flooding at the Pierowall Hotel at Westray on Orkney.
The local crew used two pumps to clear the water from the building, which took them about three-quarters of an hour.
Just before 7am, there was a report of flooding to a house in Cromarty Square at St Margaret’s Hope on Orkney. The fire service spokesman said the local crew used hand tools to clear the drains and culverts, which allowed the water to flow away.
Shortly before 7.15am an appliance from Kirkwall was called to a flooded home at Toab. Crews were on scene for almost three hours using a pump to clear water from the property and sandbags to divert the flow away from the building.
And at 9.20am, an appliance from John O’Groats responded to a call to two pine trees in a dangerous position at Dunnet.
The fire service spokesman said: “They had been blown over by the wind and were likely to fall on a house, but they were taken down safely before this happened.
“The crew used hand tools to chop part of the trees off and a ladder to prop them up while a neighbour got a chainsaw and cut them down.”
At 10.15am, the Papa Westray fire crew was called to deal with flooding in a home on the Orkney island. They pumped water from the property and dug trenches. At around 2pm, fire teams were called to protect a commercial property in Lerwick’s Greenhead Base with sand bags after it was flooded.
And on the mainland, Shetland Coastguard received a call to help rescue 12 sheep which were unable to get out of the Thurso River due to the bad weather.
A coastguard spokesman said: “Scrabster Coastguard Rescue Team members were able to coax 11 of them to safety, but the river was flowing pretty fiercely and the other one was washed away.”
A spokesman for Orkney Islands Council’s roads department said staff were working to clear water from the Savrock Junction on the A965 in Kirkwall.
He said: “Elsewhere, there was a lot of surface water around and we had a lot of flooding signs out, but other roads were passable with care.”
And amid forecasts of high winds, Pentland Ferries cancelled sailings from St Margaret’s Hope and Gills Bay.
An SSE spokeswoman said 743 homes in the Sandwick and Bigton areas of Shetland were without electricity for just over two hours from 9.20am yesterday . She said: “We received reports of an intermittent supply in these areas so the power was turned off for safety reasons while engineers investigated the cause.
“No faults were found so it is likely that the problem was weather-related.”
Motorists, particularly drivers of high-sided vehicles, were urged to take care on the Skye Bridge and the Dornoch Bridge because of high winds.
And north police warned of surface water on all roads in the Highlands.
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