Thousands of Galloway homes left without power after Storm Jocelyn batters region

A tree blocking the A710 at Steadstone Cottage after Storm Isha hit Dumfries and Galloway

Thousands of Galloway homes were left without power yesterday after the district was battered by fierce winds.

Storm Jocelyn wreaked havoc across the area on Tuesday and Wednesday, with gusts of wind above 50 miles per hour being recorded on the coast.

Numerous trees were brought down and power lines damaged, with power cuts in the Glenkens seeing both Dalry School and Kells Primary closed yesterday.

Springholm was also affected, with blackouts reported from Creetown as far east as Stranraer and as far south as Isle of Whithorn.

And that led to NHS services in the west of the region being hit.

Initially around 18,00 homes were affected by power cuts, that number coming down to 7,000 by Wednesday morning, with all homes back online by around 2pm.

Chief Operating Officer for SP Energy Networks, Guy Jefferson, said: “The last few days have seen a colossal team effort to tackle the extensive storm damage experienced across our network from Storms Isha and Jocelyn and to support our customers as we worked to get the lights back on safely and quickly.

“We understand the impact of a power cut on our customers and thank them for their support and recognition of the challenging conditions facing our teams as they worked round the clock to restore supplies. In some areas, trees were literally falling around them while they battled the elements to get the job done.

“While we’ve now seen the last of Isha and Jocelyn and we are back to business as usual, we fully expect there will be more storms to come and our teams will continue to be at the ready.”

Storm Jocelyn arrived with the region still recovering from Storm Isha on Sunday.

Meteorologist Geoff Monk, who runs a weather station at Laurieston, suggested impacts from Storm Jocelyn could have been exacerbated because it hit so soon after Storm Isha – despite wind speeds being slightly less.

He said yesterday: “A gust of 62 miles an hour was recorded at Dundrennan at 5am, which is not particularly exceptional in winter.

“However perhaps trees had been already been weakened by Storm Isha, the heavy rain and the recently frozen ground so the impact could have been cumulative and possibly led to more damage.”

On Storm Isha, Mr Monk said a gust of 60mph was recorded at Corsock and slightly above that at Dundrennan.

He said: “We have seen worse but Dumfriesshire and Cumbria was hit with a period of very heavy rain which came straight up the Irish Sea. I was surprised that there were not more reports of flooding.”

After the region was hit by sub-zero temperatures for more than a week, the heavy rain and strong winds began to arrive on Saturday – stepping up a gear when Storm Isha arrived on Sunday, with a Met Office amber warning coming into effect.

The council’s virtual operations support system (DGVOST) was launched and there were soon reports of roads being blocked by trees, with police urging people not to travel unless absolutely necessary.

Among the roads affected by fallen trees were the A710 between Dalbeattie and Colvend, the B794 between Dalbeattie and Haugh of Urr and the A711 between Kirkcudbright and the A75.

The A713 was also badly affected, particularly around New Galloway and Carsfad, with a tree blocking the popular Buckland walking route at Kirkcudbright as well as the road to

Borgue.

The bad weather looks set to continue for a few more days.

Mr Monk added: “There’s a succession of low pressure systems coming in off the Atlantic from the south west.”