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Storm havoc

Storm havoc

FLOODING hit the Highlands and islands yesterday as exceptionally high tides coupled with 70mph winds and heavy rain brought travel chaos.

Last night, coastal and river flood warnings were still in place over a wide area of the north including Nairn, Moray and Speyside, Caithness and Sutherland, Wester Ross, the Western Isles, Orkney, Shetland, Oban, Lochgilphead, Tarbert and Campbeltown.

A gust of 92mph was recorded on the Bealach nam Bo Pass to Applecross, Wester Ross, and a 30ft Scots pine was blown down on a house in Nairn.

The Kessock and Skye bridges were intermittently closed to high vehicles all day yesterday.

Today, a careful watch is being kept on another massive area of low pressure looming towards the UK, bringing the threat of more bad weather tomorrow.

Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “We don’t know yet how severe it will be.

“There’s no particular signal that it’s going to be a particularly bad one but, because of the degree of saturation of the ground, any rainfall of significance can trigger local flooding.”

One of the worst-hit areas was Stornoway town centre where the tidal surge flooded the main street, reaching into shops.

Strong south-easterly winds pushed the incoming high tide ashore at around 8am. Waves crashing over the road closed the North Ford causeway linking Benbecula and North Uist and the Baleshare causeway in North Uist.

Spray and debris washed over the Braighe causeway in Point, Lewis, leaving a blanket of seaweed.

Villages down the south-east coast of Harris suffered a power cut after the wind toppled electricity cables. Traffic may be held up when hydro engineers instal a new pole later.

Rough seas and 60mph winds cancelled many ferry services.

There was no mainland ferry to Lewis, Barra or South Uist yesterday morning while the inter-island services were also suspended. Barra might not get a ferry until tomorrow night, and CalMac has also cancelled today’s morning sailing between South Uist and Mallaig.

A CalMac spokesman said: “The strong winds which have battered much our network over the holiday period have returned and ferry travellers are advised to check the latest information at www.calmac.co.uk.”

The tidal surge came close to causing Loch Linnhe to flood the Fort William bypass. The council ferry across Loch Linnhe was suspended for a time because of the high water.

Campbeltown, Dunoon and Tarbert were flooded by the tidal surge around lunchtime and the A83 Tarbet to Campeltown road was closed at Lochgilphead for several hours when the tide reached its highest point and brought debris onto the road and the town’s Front Green.

As the high tide breached the sea wall and spilled on to the road at Oban last night the flooding created more problems for emergency services.

The water entered the basement of the Caledonian Hotel in Station Square and caused the lift to malfunction. Fire service group commander Gary Wallace said: “At 7.06pm crews were called to the smell of burning cased by water entering the lift.

“The electrics in the lift were isolated and two crews from Oban community fire station pumped water from the lower areas of the hotel.”

Cuts row, Pages 12&13