| Dundee City Council said two of its properties damaged by the high winds had reopened — Grove Academy, in Broughty Ferry, closed at lunchtime yesterday amid safety concerns over ongoing building work, reopened, and the Jessie Porter Nursery School after the roof was repaired.
The damage caused to homes across Dundee has led to a boom in business for local tradesmen.
Tony Mayall, of Kean Slaters in Ancrum Road, Dundee, said, “The phone hasn’t stopped ringing and we are still getting calls. It’s all storm damage. It’s the sort of stuff you would expect like tiles, aerials and chimneys being damaged.
“It was difficult yesterday to get people on to roofs because it was too dangerous so we were just trying to make damaged property as safe as possible.
“Hopefully we can get most things sorted by the weekend if the weather holds up.”
A S Roofing in Old Toll Loan, Dundee, reported a similar surge in business.
Director Steven Moir said, “It has been hectic. We’ve probably taken about 25 calls since yesterday. Most were for roof tiles and slates that had been blown off.
“We are working at locations across the city and, hopefully, we should be done by tomorrow or Saturday, depending on the weather.”
In north east Fife the clean-up operation was complete and council employees were now dealing with problems caused by heavy rain.
Drumrack crossroads, where power cables had come down, remained closed, as did the B936 between Auchtermuchty and Newburgh, where there was flooding at Pitcairlie.
All but a few customers who had lost power yesterday had their electricity supply returned. Primary schools Tayport, Strathmiglo, New Gilston, Balmerino and Collydean, which were closed yesterday, reopened as did Carleton Nursery and Leslie Nursery.
One Kirkcaldy family had the tricky task of recovering their trampoline, which had blown from their garden into trees.
Angus commuters had a trouble-free run to work today as calm weather returned.
The county escaped the worst of yesterday’s storms and a police spokeswoman said there were no problems to report around the district.
Power was fully restored to houses in Perthshire.
Around 2000 properties in Tayside were left without power yesterday due to the high winds, most of which were in southern Perthshire, including Lochearnhead, Gleneagles and Glendevon.
The area’s roads were less affected than many parts of the country and all were open today except an unclassified road near Milnathort, still blocked by a large tree. This has been passed on to the landowner for action.
Yesterday’s closure of the Forth Road Bridge, which caused chaos on the surrounding roads network, cannot be allowed to happen again, said the convener of Forth Estuary Transport Authority.
Fife councillor Tony Martin said an investigation was under way to find out why a painting rig, designed to withstand winds of up to 125 mph, was damaged by gusts of 80-90 mph.
The bridge re-opened at 6 o’clock last night. |
