Thousands of people in Angus and Perthshire remain without electricity as a result of Storm Malik.
Engineers are still working to get homes reconnected following havoc wreaked in Courier country.
But the weather chaos could continue on Sunday after the Met Office issued a fresh warning for Storm Corrie, which is expected to bring even higher winds than Storm Malik.
‘Significant damage to electricity network’
A spokesman for Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said: “We remain at yellow alert status for north of Scotland as our teams respond to the ongoing impacts of Storm Malik.
“From the early hours of Saturday morning, sustained wind speeds of over 70mph continue to be felt across the north of Scotland, with gusts in excess of 85mph recorded.”
He added: “The impact of Storm Malik has resulted in significant damage to our electricity network due to fallen trees, branches, and other wind-blown debris striking network infrastructure.
“Access to faults is also proving difficult due to fallen trees blocking roads.”
He said SSEN have experienced over 120 faults on the high voltage network, adding: “Our operational teams have successfully restored power to over 3,800 customers in extremely challenging conditions.
“Around 48,500 customers currently remain off supply, with the main areas affected being Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and the Moray Coast.
“With high winds forecast to continue throughout the day, some customer supplies may not be restored until Sunday.
“As our teams continue to assess the damage caused to our network and the extent of repairs needed, customer restoration times will be updated accordingly.”
Second storm approaching
Meanwhile, the spokesman said SSEN is closely monitoring the Storm Corrie forecast.
He added: “SSEN fears this has the potential to cause further damage and faults to the electricity network.
“SSEN has been tracking Storm Malik for several days and has enacted its established resilience plans, mobilising additional teams and resources to areas expected to be impacted, including teams from our licence area in central southern England and contractors.
” All available operations teams are working to restore power to customers affected as quickly as possible, where it is safe to do so.
“Teams from SSEN’s Customer Contact Centre continue to proactively contact customers to keep them updated and to offer extra support where possible.
“SSEN is also working closely with Local resilience Partnership to help coordinate its response and provide support to customers affected and is deploying welfare facilities to the main areas affected.
“Locations of welfare facilities will be shared as soon as they are confirmed.”
Storm Malik LIVE: Updates as 72mph winds batter Tayside and Fife
