Engineers have been working through the night to restore power to hundreds of homes in the wake of Storm Barra. 

People living in the north east have been particularly badly hit after the second storm of the winter blew across Scotland on Tuesday. 

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said around 1,000 customers remained without power across the north of Scotland, with 700 of these in the Grampian area, at 8am on Wednesday.It has restored power to more than 8,000 customers following Storm Barra and engineers are working to reconnect the rest.

More than a dozen flood alerts and warnings are in place across Scotland after Storm Barra brought heavy rain to many areas. 

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said it is monitoring the situation round the clock, with alerts in place in areas including north east, Edinburgh and the Lothians, Fife, Dumfries and Galloway and Argyll. 

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More specific warnings are in place for Helmsdale, Loch Ryan and Findhorn. People have been asked to stay vigilant.  

Storm Barra moved in from the west on Tuesday, and a yellow weather warning for wind is in place from midnight until 6pm on Wednesday for the west coast of Wales and south-west England. 

The Herald:

Met Office forecasters said the storm is not expected to cause as much chaos as Storm Arwen – though it sparked travel delays and school closures in Scotland. 

Spokeswoman Nicky Maxey said: “We are not expecting the impacts of Barra to be as bad as we saw with Arwen. 

“Storm Barra will bring strong winds and heavy rainfall to many parts of the UK today. 

“We may see some snow on the higher ground, too. 

“It is unlikely to be as impactful as Storm Arwen last week but there will be blustery conditions so people should still be prepared.” 

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ScotRail has warned that some Wednesday services will be cancelled due to the storm. 

The Herald:

Flooding has followed the storm(stock pic)

SEPA said in a media statement: “Regional Flood Alerts are in place, and Local Flood Warnings will continue to be issued where necessary. People living and working in affected areas are advised to plan their essential journeys and consider the steps they need to take now to be prepared. 

“SEPA is working 24/7 to monitor rainfall and river levels and is in close contact with the Met Office and other partners to review the forecasts, which are combined with local expertise from all regions of Scotland to understand and present the flooding risk. The most up-to-date information is always available on our website.” 

SSEN said it hopes to reconnect all affected customers later on Wednesday.

An SSEN Distribution spokesman said: “SSEN engineers have restored power to over 8,000 customers following severe wind gusts and heavy snowfall brought by Storm Barra.

“As of 8am, around 1,000 customers remain without power across the north of Scotland, with 700 of these in the Grampian area.

“Our teams are working hard to restore supplies to our impacted customers as soon as possible this morning and expect to reconnect all customers impacted by Storm Barra later today.

“We are working closely with our local resilience partners to provide support to our priority service register customers and gain access to faults blocked by heavy snow and fallen trees.”

On the railways, ScotRail said services between Stranraer, Kilmarnock and Glasgow Central may be cancelled or revised on Wednesday due to the impact of Storm Barra the previous day.

Caledonian MacBrayne said amended timetables will operate on some ferry routes due to disruption the day before.

Braemar Mountain Rescue Team spent 16 hours helping a walker in difficulty in snowy conditions at the Fords of Avon refuge.

They tweeted: “A very challenging night at times.

“Huge thanks to the couple that found him initially and came for help.”

The walker was recovered safe and well.