Power lines snapped like matchsticks in worst conditions on Shetland for 20 years

Dec 15, 2022

The collective effort to reconnect cut-off communities on Shetland is hard to understate. It’s a mammoth mission in one of the UK’s most remote areas.

Power lines were knocked down like matchsticks as the significant weight of the ice forced them to snap.

Every corner you turn on the snowy, rural roads reveals rows of pylons bent and twisted.

Let’s remember that these are the worst conditions Shetland has endured in 20 years.

The route to recovery is a slow, painstaking process.

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Engineers, many of whom have had to travel via ferry from mainland Scotland, use hammers to remove the frozen ice from each and every wrecked cable.

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This takes time. But every blow of the hammer edges this island closer to normality.

People here are made of tough stuff. They get on with it and find solutions.

One mum I met has electric storage heaters and has therefore had no heating, hot water, a proper meal or phone signal for four days and counting.

She has been using a tiny camping stove – but it will soon run out of gas.

Frustrations building

Community spirits are high at the local emergency shelters. Halls are packed with groups of locals huddled around, holding hot cups of tea and sharing their tales of struggle.

The elderly are enjoying the company of others, while the young play games to keep them entertained.

But frustrations are also building in Shetland as folk become increasingly vulnerable to the extreme weather.

The time to ask questions about the future will come.

For now, people here are focussed on the here and now as they wonder when they’ll be reconnected.

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