talkmagic.co.uk

by **jim ferguson** » Mar 26th, '13, 15:59

You may have seen on the news lately that there is some trouble with power lines and snow on a few of our islands. Well I live on the Isle of Arran and its not been good. We have been without electricity from friday at 6am. They managed to ship a few emergency generators from the mainland and one got hooked up around 10pm last night for my area (one of the more rural). I've never been so happy to have a light and a radiator on.

The Fire Service has been great, allowing the public to use their facilities and offering hot food and drinks. Everyone has been helping one another and has great community spirit, despite being literaly freezing. The hotels are also offering a similar service and helping where they can - apart from one who has took it upon themselves to put up a sign offering a hot shower and hot food, then upon entering pointing out that the sign doesn't say "free" and tries to charge you three quid per shower and god knows how much for food !
We have food wagons over from Glasgow providing hot food and drinks and the operators have been great.

Sadly there are still parts of the island that are still without power and/or snowed in. The engineers have been working round the clock.
Many livestock have also been lost. My daughters boyfriend has lost 7 sheep at the last count and god knows what else.

The perks of living on an island.

Jim

by **Mandrake** » Mar 26th, '13, 19:38

Thanks for the update, it's difficult to truly imagine what those dreadful circumstances are like but good to see the community spirit coming to the fore - apart from the robdog hotelier, of course. Friends of mine lived out in the Perthshire countryside for years but the last episode of bad weather they endured meant no power, no phones apart from mobiles and relying for almost 2 weeks on stored foodstocks. As they were now over retirement age they sold uip and moved into the City where they still get bad weather but none of those problems. Let's hope the services are resumed for you sharpish!

by **kevmundo** » Mar 26th, '13, 20:46

I hope you're surviving up there!!! I left the snow of Cambridgeshire last week and fortunately flew to Tenerife where it's Baking and I've got sunburn. I've been watching sky international and reading the uk papers as a true Brit abroad should. I can't believe the awful weather back home. Hopefully the end of this week will see the back of it. Wishing you all the best!!!

K

by **Mandrake** » Mar 26th, '13, 21:19

Er, there's more snow forecast for this weekend, sorry!

by **kevmundo** » Mar 26th, '13, 22:08

Mandrake wrote:Er, there's more snow forecast for this weekend, sorry!

Boo-hoo!!!! I don't think I'll bother coming back!!!

I

by **mr invisible** » Mar 27th, '13, 08:04

Snow was so bad in Derbyshire, we had to cancel our move last Friday.. Some places were 2ft in our village. Anyway we managed to get away Monday morning, just!!! So glad I am no longer living in a village, just way to isolated..

by **Lady of Mystery** » Mar 27th, '13, 10:26

I heard the Islands had got it bad, stay safe and warm. My husband's family are in Stirling, they're ok as they're in the city but they said the rural areas are havoc.