On the Thursday night of Storm Babet, I went to bed about midnight. As I went to turn off my light ... it turned itself off. I thought “wow that’s amazing … I have superpowers” before realising the electric had gone off. Andrew was away and I had been left in charge of the fish … so I donned the trusty dressing gown and scampered down the stairs in my PJ’s by the light of my phone to seek out the standby oxygenation kit. Once the water was happily bubbling and the fish were waving back at me, I returned to my bed. In the morning I lay waiting, like our ancestors of old, for the sun to rise so I could see my way to getting dressed.
Once fully garbed there was the opportunity to take on the next challenge of getting water as we are on a bore hole that requires power to pump the water. Fortunately, Scott was home on reading week from Uni, so I dug him out of bed and off we went to try and start the generator using his superpower of pulling starter cables. However, sadly, the electric battery needed to start the generator was out of charge so off we went to the village to seek some mains charge for that.
Standing in the middle of the deluge looking at the A9 traffic jam caused the landslips we met Adam from Progression Bikes walking his somewhat soggy dog. He informed us that the A9 pedestrian underpass along with the bridge over the Braan had been washed away and Inver was now cut off from the rest of the village for anyone without a car. Bang goes my e-bike trips to the village – no battery or superpower will fly me across the Braan or the A9. No power, no bridges, no underpass – end of days stuff. The ever-reliable Coop was shut and the Best One, while managing to open, had no papers or extra batteries for the fish. As they had no Wi-Fi it was cash only for the milk – Cash? What is that in these post diluvian days? I had none of the old folding stuff but Marion took pity and let me have the milk on tick (which reminds me I must go and pay my debts). Then back up the strath to start building the ark and encouraging the fish to pair up two by two.
Across the country many people have lost their homes and possessions and, most tragically of all, their lives. Against the power of the storm, we are metaphorically and literally powerless. Sending all the best to everyone who has been affected.

Sally Robertson