BRITAIN struggled to recover from storms and freezing temperatures yesterday with Scotland and Wales still badly hit - and more problems on the way.
Around 4,000 south Wales homes were still left blacked out last night as the region's electricity company announced it would not be making any compensation payments.
The AA reported much improved roads. The A 74 in Scotland has reopened, although note all lanes are clear and delays will take a long time to ease.
Police in Dumfries and Galloway, the worst hit area in southern Scotland, have been working all day to clear the roads almost 1,000 vehicles stranded in the Lockerbie area of the A 74.
All drivers have now been reunited with their cars and have, restarted their interrupted journeys. Some of the drivers had spent a night trapped in their cars as up to two feet of snow blanketed the area.
Others were evacuated to rescue centres, set up urgently by the police, the regional council and volunteers.
Two RAF helicopters and a Cumbria police aircraft surveyed the stricken area of southern Scotland. Their main task was to identify stranded people in rural areas, needing help but with no phone lines.
In south Wales, 4,000 homes faced another cold night without power as the region's electricity company announced it would not be making any compensation payments.
South Wales Electricity apologised to its cut off customers but said it was not obliged to reduce bills under the industry's penalty rules. "The problems were caused by extreme weather, by blizzards and high winds - not by us" explained a company spokesman.
Some west Wales and north Gwent communities spent a third shivering day without power as Swalec engineers coped with snow drifts to restore supplies.
The company's "no compensation" statement came despite exgratia payments of between £40 and £200 last month to hundreds of customers in Mid Glamorgan and Gwent who were blacked out for up to six days.