These photographs, taken by Anne Jackson yesterday at Portuairk (above) and the Lighthouse, are a brave attempt to capture the fury of yesterday's storm but they cannot show the way the wind seemed to flatten even the largest waves, and then whipped their tops off and threw the spray in a swirling horizontal curtain across sea and land. The sound was eerie, a wild, banshee screaming, particularly where the wind passed through the branches of deciduous trees. The Raptor, who lives on the relatively protected south side of the peninsula, recorded a gust of 109 mph. The anemometer at the Lighthouse, where speeds would have been even higher, is still not working.
Power losses along the west coast of Scotland were far fewer than for the 8th December storm: this morning's news reported that only 1,000 homes were affected overnight, amongst which those on West Ardnamurchan were, inevitably, included. Serious questions have to be asked of Scottish and Southern Energy about why it is that we suffer so badly.
The power started going on and off around 12.30 yesterday afternoon and finally died at about 2.00pm. It came back at 11.00 this morning in Kilchoan, but it's still off along the north side of the peninsula. They have been told that they will have to wait until 6.00pm this evening for reconnection.
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