Scotland hit by once in generation storm

Forecasters expect some respite on Friday
after a huge storm cut power to thousands
of homes in Scotland and forced
evacuations in northern England.
The storm, packing winds of up to 265
kilometres per hour, caused transport chaos
and left more than 55,000 people without
electricity on Thursday.
The strongest gales were recorded at the
Cairngorms range in the Scottish Highlands,
while the main cities of Glasgow and
Edinburgh were hit by wind speeds of
113km/h.
Thousands of schools around Glasgow and
the west of Scotland were closed, while
every major bridge was shut, flights from
the main airports were disrupted and train
services cut.
In northern England, two people in North
Yorkshire were rescued by the Royal Air
Force from a partially-submerged car and
were airlifted to hospital with suspected
hypothermia, emergency services said.
There was heavy rain in the Cumbria region,
where police said they received several calls
from motorists stuck in floodwater.
The Environment Agency issued seven
flood alerts at different locations on 12
rivers and lakes in the county.
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has
praised the response of emergency crews.
'I've been kept in touch... and I've seen the
extraordinary pictures of the exceptionally
high winds,' Salmond said during a visit to
Hong Kong on Friday.
'Scotland is a windy country but even for
Scotland that was a once-in-a-generation
experience.'
Salmond said there had been no fatalities
reported.
He said Scotland's main power companies
expected power to be restored at the
weekend.
'There are still about 50,000 people without
power but there's 15,000 people working
on that.'
'Scotland's a very resilient country and we
can take whatever Mother Nature throws at
us,' Salmond said.
Forecasters expected some respite on
Friday, with the worst of the winds
confined to northeast Scotland and the
Shetland Islands.