Mind those flying bins!

A local resident has reminded us that our new bins are much lighter than the old ones and could blow away down the street and be a danger for road users. Try and put them in a place where they will be secure, as the red bins are due to go out for collection next.

 

AMBER WEATHER WARNING

  • Between 1600 and 2359 tomorrow (Wednesday 16th) D&G will be covered by an AMBER warning for high wind. The latest warnings can be seen on the Met Office warnings page – UK weather warnings – Met Office 
  • The AMBER warning covering D&G is for medium likelihood of medium impacts including:
    • Road, rail, air and ferry services may be affected, and some roads and bridges are likely to close, leading to longer journey times and cancellations. There is also the potential for cross border travel issues.
    • Probably some fallen trees and damage to buildings, such as tiles blown from roofs.
    • There is a good chance that power cuts may occur, with the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage.
    • Injuries and danger to life is likely from large waves and beach material being thrown onto coastal roads, sea fronts and properties.
  • A Flood Alert has been issued for Dumfries and Galloway Flood Updates – SEPA Floodline. This alert is for coastal flooding. Due to a combination of strong winds, storm surge and large waves, areas exposed to the north west could see some wave and spray overtopping on Wednesday and Thursday. The greatest risk is around the time of high tides on Wednesday 11:30am and 11:45pm in Portpatrick.
  • The Council’s Resilience Team has been carefully monitoring current weather forecasts. At 1100hrs the Team hosted a Situational Awareness meeting with LRP partners including SPEN, the WoS RRP, SFRS, SAS, HSCP, NHS, Transport Scotland and Police Scotland.
  • Status of SPEN Dumfries & Galloway in response to Storm Dudley and Eunice (as at 1215 hrs)
    • SPEN will escalate to Level 3 Storm preparedness from 08:00 on Wednesday 16th February till further notice. This will be reviewed depending on levels of incidences and customers off supply
    • Standby rotas for staff to attend faults will be enhanced with all operational staff available till Saturday 8am. This will be reviewed on a daily basis.
    • Offices in Dumfries and Stranraer will operate in storm response (Emergency Action Centres) and manned accordingly to coordinate the response
    • All planned Business as usual work will be stopped from 16:00 on Wednesday 16th to minimise customer power interruption and safety of staff during extreme weather conditions
    • Additional Overhead Line and Tree cutting contractors will be secured to assist with power interruptions
    • Please encourage all customers without power to contact 105 to report power interruptions
  • P&O and Stena may cancel sailing but should have parking capacity on site, which should avoid OP STACK being activated. Transport Scotland are liaising with the ferry operators.
  • Depending on local impacts overnight into Thursday there may be disruption to school transport and bin collection on Thursday morning.
  • We will monitor the care for people and welfare issue closely. We have spoken to SPEN regarding humanitarian assistance and aim to be ready to activate centres if required by prolonged power outages..

WHAT NEXT?

  • All D&G LRP partners are sharing duty officer numbers and will remain in close contact.
  • The LRP has provisionally earmarked further meetings for 2100hrs Wednesday evening and 0800hrs Thursday morning, but we will be flexible and alter as required.
  • DGC has already issued weather warning on social media and partners will issue appropriate warning and informing messages via social media. DGVOST is on standby to be activated and staffing rosters have been put in place.
  • The Resilience Team will continue to provide updates as and when required.

I have added a few links here you may be interested in, perhaps particularly SPEN’s power cuts map. In addition, further below, I have added Ready Scotland advice on Storms and winds with further useful links

POWER CUTS MAP https://www.spenergynetworks.co.uk/pages/power_cuts_map.aspx

Emergency School Closure https://info.dumgal.gov.uk/esc/home

For general preparedness: ReadyScotland

For winter preparedness: Ready Scotland Ready for Winter

For business continuity: Ready Scotland Ready Business

For weather advice: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/advice/

For weather warnings: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/ukforecastwarnings

For flood warnings and flood advice: http://www.sepa.org.uk/flooding.aspx and https://scottishfloodforum.org/news/latest-news/

For public transport advice: http://www.travelinescotland.com

For roads advice: http://trafficscotland.org/

For Ferry travel sailing to and from Cairnryan https://www.poferries.com/en/routes/cairnryan-to-larne/travel-information/timetables and https://www.stenaline.co.uk/routes/cairnryan-belfast/timetable

For disruption to Rail https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/indicator.aspx