Another very difficult day in the snow

Another day of hardship for people in Kintyre & Arran as SSE, the Council, the emergency services and many others struggle to get through to villages, restore power and phones to consumers and provide supplies including (as I discovered this afternoon from one of our Councillors in the area, Anne Horn ) much needed candles, batteries, gas and food. Another of the local Councillors - John Semple- rang me from a hillside (there is presently no mobile phone signal in Campbeltown ) to stress that people also needed as much information from the media as possible so that they can know when they might get power restored and what is being done.

An awful lot is, of course, being done at every level. I have also been involved during the day in contacts with officials including those in the Resilience Unit in the Scottish Government and everybody is working flat out in offices and on the very chilly ground.

There have been a few new snow flurries but the problem is the sheer volume of snow that fell on Friday into Saturday and the damage it has done - some of the helicopter pictures are extraordinary and apparently there have not been falls like this in the area for sixty years or more.

There is still a lot around Loch Riddon too, though not as much as in Kintyre and Arran. But in Dunoon there is virtually nothing.

People in Kintyre are commenting , though , not just on the hardship and difficulty but also on the superb dedication of all those from the power company, the Council and the emergency services who are out and about and who are literally moving mountains to get things sorted as well as on the community solidarity and mutual self help that is taking place.

People are helping others to cope and that is a strong positive.