The worst storm in 25 years, with gales of up to 165mph, hammered the country and, miraculously, there were no deaths or serious injuries.

However, there was wide-spread disruption, including around 60,000 homes left without power, more than 2700 schools closed, and 64 people trapped on a train.

Hundreds of power workers worked through the night and well into this morning to end blackouts up and down the country.

ScottishPower said today that it had reconnected more than 18,000 customers, who had lost power because of more than 100 individual faults.

Transport across the West was getting back to normal today, though some trains services have been cancelled.

Scotrail says most services are running across the West, though trains to Gourock and Largs will be replaced by buses from Kilwinning. Services further north including the West Highland line are off.

Scotrail said: "We regret that there is some disruption today due to the need to check infrastructure on some routes, a landslip, and the scale of fallen trees and debris on tracks."

Buses are back to normal except for some diversions due to damage.

Early today councils across the West of Scotland were hit by a new problem – the risk of ice as temperatures plunged to freezing. Gritters were deployed in Glasgow and other parts of the country.

There were some claims that there had been an over-reaction to the gales, given that many people were able to still go about their business with only minor delays on trains and buses and on the roads.

But Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "There has been no over-reaction. When you have the Met Office telling you that they have got the highest warning covering the Central Belt of the country, and the police telling you there is a probability – which turned out to be the reality – of a no-travel warning, I think it is incumbent on Government to react appropriately to that.

"That's what we did. The decisions that have been taken have been right."

As a result of the gales, all schools in Glasgow, North and South Lanarkshire, North, South and East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, West and East Dunbartonshire and Inverclyde were closed. Others closed at lunchtime.

Local authorities said all schools were open as normal today.

In Glasgow, one of the worst affected areas, the city council said staff were out in force today to deal with the clean-up.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council, said: "We had to suspend refuse collection yesterday afternoon, and concentrated on dealing with storm damaged trees.

"This has caused disruption to our refuse collection services and we will now work on catching up. Residents should continue to leave their bins out as normal.

"As the winds eased overnight, temperatures began to plummet and precautionary gritting was carried out on our priority routes during the early hours of the morning.

BUILDING control officers have also been on duty overnight to respond to any reports of storm-damaged buildings.

"All of our schools and nurseries were expected to open this morning, and all other council services are expected to get back to normal today.

"Staff worked throughout the night dealing with the aftermath of the extreme weather.

"By 9pm yesterday more than 80 damaged trees had been reported, many missing limbs but others completely blocking roads.

"Dangerous buildings also led to the closure of several roads, most of which have now re-opened."

City centre streets, including Renfield Street and Great Western Road, were re-opened this morning after police had closed them because of fears about falling debris.

However, Tollcross Road was this morning closed due a potentially unsafe building.

Trains today remain disrupted in Glasgow and across the Central Belt, after cancelled services yesterday and most trains in Scotland had to reduce their speed to around 50mph.

ScotRail warned commuters to expect delays as "service alterations were in place".

FirstBus confirmed normal service was to resume today, however some diversions were still in place, including at North Road in Bellshill.

THE Scottish Government's Resilience Committee was meeting this morning to assess their position.

The Met Office is now warning more low pressure areas could be heading to Scotland over the coming weeks.

Spokeswoman Helen Chivers, said: "It's down to what could be described as an explosive, developing area of low pressure coming in from over the Atlantic.

"In the past 24 hours, that frontal system has developed into a massive storm which has been blown across the Atlantic by the jet stream.

"It's just the general variability of the UK weather."

rebecca.gray@heraldandtimes.co.uk

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