Weather causes communications issues

THE overnight thunder and lightning looks to have caused disruption to some communication links in Orkney.

This includes disruption to The Orcadian computer and phone systems earlier today, which are now re-connected.

A BT statement said: “Given the extent of the lightning last night there may well be individual network faults in Openreach’s access network, which should be reported to service providers as usual.”

“Severe storms and flooding in Edinburgh last night damaged some broadband equipment in our exchange buildings. As a result, some customers in Edinburgh and a small number of other locations in Scotland may be unable to connect to the internet. Engineers are doing everything they can to restore any affected customers as soon as possible. Due to the extent of the damage, we expect engineers to complete their work in the exchanges later today, Wednesday, – at which point we’ll be able to assess any further related impact. Most phone and mobile services are not affected and we’re very sorry for any inconvenience.”

As far as power supplies are concerned, a SSE spokesperson said: “We have no reports of faults overnight in Orkney, but we currently have a power cut in the North Ronaldsay area which is affecting five customers and is likely weather related. Engineers have been dispatched to fix the fault.”