More than 100 engineers are being sent to Shetland after heavy snowstorms cut power to thousands of homes, many of which face being without electricity until the end of this week.
A major incident has been declared, with householders urged to remain at home after heavy loads of ice and snow brought down electricity lines to nearly 4,000 homes earlier this week.
With 2,800 homes still without power, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said 15 emergency crews had arrived by ferry at Lerwick early on Wednesday morning, with emergency generators being used in some places.
The power company said other crews would arrive from mainland Scotland and Orkney during the day and into Thursday by plane, ferry and helicopter, taking the number of extra engineers sent to Shetland to 125.
Graeme Keddie, SSEN’s director of corporate affairs, told BBC Radio Scotland: “This has been a very concentrated and explosive weather event on Shetland, which has been far worse than expected. Local crews say it is the worst they have seen it since 1995.”
The storm brought down parts of Shetland’s main 33kV electricity network cutting power to homes on Voe, Whalsay, Brae, Yell and West Mainland. SSEN has deployed a helicopter to help survey the damage. Customers in West Mainland are likely to be without power until the weekend.
The crime writer Ann Cleeves issued an appeal for help after losing a laptop in the storm containing half of her new novel. She had searched for the “scruffy” Hewlett Packard device in Mareel arts centre and the public library in Lerwick without success.
Cleeves, the author of the Shetland series of crime novels, tweeted:
Sheltland tweeps I need your help! Lost my laptop in the blizzard y’day. I’d been to @ShetlandLibrary & @MareelShetland but no sign there. Scruffy HP. Could have fallen from bag. Half novel there. Reward offered!
— Ann Cleeves (@AnnCleeves) December 13, 2022
All of the islands’ schools remained closed, with Sumburgh airport, the main airport for Shetland, closed overnight by further snow. Leisure centres were also shut.
Emma Macdonald, the leader of Shetland Islands council, told the BBC the weather was unusual. A car journey that should normally take 25 minutes took her five hours during Monday’s storm.
“The community is very resilient, as an island we have to be, and we have seen a lot of community support, everyone pulling together to do what they can,” she said. “There is a lot of snow, a lot of wet snow and it is sticking on the lines which is the issue. It is very unprecedented, I don’t think it can be blamed on the electricity company.”
SSEN said it would fund emergency accommodation costs for vulnerable households on its priority services register and pay up to £30 a day to cover hot food costs for those able to travel to areas with power.
The islands had a serious communications outage for several days in October, when two undersea cables were cut, leaving many islanders without mobile, computer and landline telephone services. Fishing trawlers are thought to have snagged the cables, which connected Shetland to mainland Scotland.
