UK energy minister sees scope of Storm Arwen's aftermath in Aberdeenshire
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The UK Government's energy minister Greg Hands visited communities across the north-east on Friday to see the recovery work being done to get power back to the remaining properties that were impacted by Storm Arwen.
It has now been a week since the extreme weather event hit the region and it is the smaller rural areas in Aberdeenshire that are still being affected by issues.
Power company SSEN expects most of the 1600 remaining homes without electricity to be restored today, although some will remain off the grid until Saturday.
Mr Hands visited Kemnay to see the work being done by engineers to restore electricity; Ellon to meet with military personnel who have been drafted in to assist and the local resilience group, and Methlick where many homes are still without power or water, and residents are being assisted with hot food from a truck in the centre of the village.
While visiting Methlick with Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid, Mr Hands said: "The purpose of the visit is to see the aftermath of Storm Arwen, which was one of the biggest weather events to hit Scotland and the UK for some decades.
"With this kind of a storm and the power outage, we are still seeing some people without electricity. Across the north-east of Scotland about 99 per cent of those who lost their power have been reconnected. We hope the last few hundred will be reconnected today or into tomorrow.
"It has been about understanding the operation and thanking the engineers, who have come from across the UK to help out, the local resilience forum and the British Forces who are here assisting.
"We were with the Army in Ellon, we also met with the town's resilience group and we have been out with SSEN in the other locations.
"I have seen whole rows of trees knocked over, extensive cabling that is out, two areas of cabling that's been put back up by the really skilled engineering crews and the help they have received from across the country.
"They are working really, really hard and some of the engineers have been doing 17-hour shifts dealing with dark nights and the cold conditions.
"The UK Government has brought in the Army. Secretary of State Kwasi Kwarteng and I have been speaking with the distribution network operators, the network operating companies throughout.
"We've also seen the UK mutual aid scheme kick in, where the network operators from across the country pull resources and they offer aid to each other. Today we met those from Liverpool, Wales, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and Southern England all up here helping to get the area reconnected as quickly as we can."
Mr Duguid outlined that he had been impressed with how the local communities have pulled together.
He said: "Here in Methlick you have Mike Coull providing food from his chip van and there's examples of that all over Banff Buchan, Aberdeenshire and the north-east where people have been hit the worst in those areas that are more isolated from some of the bigger population centres.
"When SSEN was reinstating the power they were focusing on the faults that would reinstate more and more customers and we are getting to that end of the curve now where its the smaller groups of people that are being restored.
"I've been assured that between today and tomorrow the vast majority of those that are left should have their power back.
"The people living in the communities they have all come together. The different local support agencies, whether that's the council, the electricity providers, the Army, the police or everybody involved with the resilience partnership, have all been working hard throughout the recovery operation.
"I understand from hearing from my constituents there is a lot of frustration because they don't see that happening, but I can assure everyone there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to get everybody's power back at the soonest opportunity and provide support to people that need it while their electricity is off."
Mr Duguid added he had been aware of people's frustration about communication during the aftermath of the storm.
He said: "The next most important thing that people need is good communication, they want quality updates of what's happening and what to expect.
"As the week has progressed people are now starting to ask the kind of questions of How did this happen? Why did that happen? which tells me that they're past the crisis mode and they're now wanting to learn from what happened and how we can avoid the impact of such an event being as bad as it has been this time.
"The questions are being asked and myself, the minister and representatives elsewhere will be looking to get the answers to those questions.
"Whenever something like this happens we must learn whatever we can to make sure we can handle it better in the future."
Earlier in the day, West Aberdeenshire MP Andrew Bowie accompanied Mr Hands in Kemnay.
Mr Bowie said: “Along with other parts of the UK, the north-east was thrown into chaos by perhaps the worst winds of the past 60 years.
“Greg and I spoke to the engineers working to restore power lines in parts of Aberdeenshire that were almost entirely flattened — thousands of trees gone, along with so many masts in the devastation.
“We are deeply indebted to the Armed Forces personnel who have been checking on residents and assisting the general relief effort. I had a good conversation with the Royal Marines of 45 Commando, who were determined to help.
“Recovery from Storm Arwen will require massive effort, and I’d like to thank the many teams of volunteers and council workers who have been a tower of strength this past week."
