Hurricane-force winds and driving rain caused chaos across Scotland on Tuesday, with tens of thousands of householders in Tayside and Fife left without power and a trail of damage caused to homes and commercial properties.
The Forth and Tay road bridges were closed to all vehicles for around five hours, with winds reaching speeds of 102mph on the latter, while the Friarton Bridge at Perth was closed to high-sided vehicles.
Around 17,000 householders in Perth and Kinross and 15,000 homes in Fife suffered power cuts for several hours as lines were brought down.
The Met Office placed many parts of the country on red alert its highest warning for several hours, with commuters warned not to travel as trees blocked many roads. Dozens of flights were cancelled and train and ferry services were suspended.
The A90 northbound at St Madoes was closed for more than an hour after a tree was blown over, causing lengthy disruption while BEAR Scotland employees cleared the debris.
Eastern and central Scotland were battered by the weather, with SSE and ScottishPower confirming that around 75,000 customers were left without electricity.
In Dundee firefighters were exceptionally busy dealing with multiple reports of damaged roofs, falling masonry and metal signs threatening to fly away. However the most serious damage appeared to have been in Fife and Perth and Kinross.
A horse died after a stable collapsed in Scotlandwell. Two others managed to bolt to safety.
At Rhynd, near Perth, two telegraph poles were set alight as a high-power cable went flying and in Crieff an electricity pylon caught fire after being hit by a falling tree.
In Dunfermline part of a roof apparently struck a power sub-station, cutting off supplies.
Further north blizzards on the A9 at Aviemore caused major delays on the main route from Perth to Inverness.
On the railways winds of up to 95mph disrupted services on the East Coast main line, particularly for passengers travelling in Scotland and on cross-border trains.
Waverley Station in Edinburgh was closed for safety reasons but reopened last night.
Other services across most of the Scottish rail network south of Inverness and Aberdeen were severely hit by debris on the tracks and overhead line damage.
ScotRail said passengers had been advised not to travel. The company said hundreds of fallen trees and house and garden debris had blocked lines, with the area around Markinch badly affected.
Network Rail Scotland said crews with chainsaws were out on the network clearing the trees.
A ScotRail spokeswoman said they planned to run as many services as possible today.
”We continue to work closely with Network Rail on the impact of the severe storms, and advise customers to check our website (link) before setting off on journeys,” she said.
Flights at Edinburgh and Glasgow airports were cancelled, but Dundee was not affected as the worst of the weather had passed before the first flight of the day to London was due to take off at lunchtime.
Transport Scotland fully activated its Multi-Agency Response Team and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) issued several flood warnings, from Moy Bridge in the Highlands to six locations in Tayside.
The Scottish Government’s Resilience Committee (SGoRR) was operating throughout the day. First Minister Alex Salmond, Transport Minister Keith Brown and representatives from the emergency services, transport providers, SEPA, the Met Office and power companies were involved.
Mr Brown said travel advice had been issued on Monday but the winds had been much more severe than anticipated, leading to the red warning around 8am yesterday.
He said: ”The severe winds we experienced may be easing off but the efforts to restore transport links and power continue unabated, with thousands of staff working hard to get services back to normal.
”Thanks to the resilience arrangements that were put in place on Monday, engineers and chainsaw gangs have been out all day restoring power lines, repairing faults and clearing trees from railway lines, roads and power lines.”For more in-depth coverage of how the storm affected Tayside and Fife, see Wednesday’s Courier.