Home   News   Article

Snow and low temperatures in the wake of Storm Arwen spark a major incident status call from Police Scotland


By David Porter

Easier access to your trusted, local news. Subscribe to a digital package and support local news publishing.



Click here to sign up to our free newsletters!
High winds have caused devistation to woodlands across the north-east including Cranna Wood near Rothienorman. Picture: Alistair Forsyth
High winds have caused devistation to woodlands across the north-east including Cranna Wood near Rothienorman. Picture: Alistair Forsyth

Following the expiry of the red and amber weather warnings this morning in relation to wind there is a now a yellow Met Office weather warning in place across Aberdeenshire for wintry weather and low temperatures till 11am.

Temperatures are expected to reach a low of -5 in coastal areas and -10 in rural and inland areas.

Due to the widespread damage and disruption caused by Storm Arwen Police Scotland have declared a major incident in the north-east.

Aberdeenshire Health and Social care released the following update -

The impact of Storm Arwen across the road network is extensive.

In all areas we are dealing with substantial numbers of fallen trees which are blocking or partially blocking roads.

Crews are deployed to deal with this at the moment and will continue this work until around dusk.

We will pull back from clearance of trees, albeit we will respond to requests for assistance from Emergency Services, and turn our focus to Winter Maintenance.

Gritting was suspended last night due to it being unsafe to put the gritters out.

Gritting was carried out this morning although not all of the 32 Primary Routes were fully treated due to roads being affected by fallen trees.

We will be able to do more of the 32 routes, but we are unlikely to be in the position to grit everything as we would normally do.

Snow gates are closed and are likely to remain that way.

This is a very dynamic situation and we are continuing to get reports of new tree falls, following destabilisation by Storm Arwen.

Therefore, it is possible that routes that were open yesterday will not necessarily be open today or tomorrow.

Crews are working with emergency services and SSE to prioritise the re-opening of priority routes that will facilitate the administering of emergency care and expedite power reinstatement.

Our headline message at the moment is that RESIDENTS SHOULD NOT TRAVEL in Aberdeenshire, unless it is absolutely necessary.

If they do have to travel they should allow extra time for their journey and expect that they may well have to take alternative routes to normal.

This message is being communicated by Police Scotland nationally and also through local communication channels.

SSE has engineers, hot food vendors and generators deployed to the worst affected communities in Aberdeenshire and updates are provided during the course of the day - at present they are working to have power restored in areas by 6pm, but with the snow there may be further delays.

A decision was made last night to set up a Rest Centre in Ballater recognising that power will likely be out for a further 24 hours in this part of Aberdeenshire.

Additional supplies of diesel are being provided to those care homes, sheltered housing complexes and community hospitals that are still without power and reliant on back- up generators.

This will ensure that power for essential equipment, cooking and heat is maintained through out this period.

The British Red Cross have been deployed to check on vulnerable members of our communities that HSCP have been unable to contact.

This is part due to the community alarm system being disabled in sheltered housing by the power outage and also mobile phone networks being down.

The message is very much for people to stay at home as the road network is not safe to travel on, due to debris on the road and the wintry weather. We’re also asking people to keep an eye on vulnerable and elderly neighbours due to the power outage.

This is being communicated through local channels.

Damage to buildings and property, blocked roads and fallen trees should be reported through the 101 telephone number, as the Police are triaging during this major incident.

This allows Officers to prioritise efforts on providing the necessary essential care and support to our communities during the power outage.


Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.



This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More