News / Little weather damage so far
FISHING BOATS and other vessels are heading for shelter in various Shetland ports as the weather in the Fair Isle region deteriorates, with warnings of hurricane force winds ahead and the NorthLink ferries cancelled on Thursday night and under review on Friday.
Fire crews in Lerwick were attending a flooded warehouse in the town on Thursday lunchtime, but other emergency services remained quiet.
Primary schools in North Roe and Urafirth had to close on Thursday morning due to power failures.
Morning fixed wing and helicopter flights in and out of Scatsta airport went ahead as scheduled, but as the south east winds picked up to gusts of 70mph at lunchtime, all flights were diverted to Sumburgh.
One unfortunate planeload of passengers flew to Sumburgh to land just before 11am, but the gusts were so bad the pilot turned back to Aberdeen after two unsuccessful approaches to the landing strip. As a result the return flight from Sumburgh was inevitably cancelled.
However airport manager NIgel Flaws said that he was expecting no further delays, with the wind dying down by 2pm.
While the Scottish mainland suffers out of the ordinary weather normally only experienced in places like Shetland, forecasters were predicting matters to get worse in the far north.
A lull in the storm is expected during the late afternoon, after which the wind could build up as high as hurricane force 12 from the north west carrying snow.
Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution are making detailed contingency plans to minimise the potential impact of the storms on the electricity network throughout the north of Scotland.
They have deployed 500 engineers to be on standby in the northern region to deal with faults.
Extra call handlers have been drafted in and anyone experiencing a loss in supply is urged to call the SHEPD hotline on 0800 300 999.
Please send your weather pictures to news@shetnews.co.uk or text them to 07775 564513.
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