Families evacuated as town hit by floods
Deluge sparks ‘major incident’
FAMILIES were evacuated yesterday as hundreds of homes were feared to be at risk of flooding.
Emergency services helped people to leave dozens of homes in a highrisk area of Hawick after declaring 500 properties could be inundated as a result of heavy downpours.
Officers called in the Borders Water Rescue Team, mountain rescue and fire crews to help evacuate properties, and schools and health centres were closed.
The heavy rain caused chaos across the region. In Peebles, the River Tweed burst its banks and there were fears in Hawick that the Teviot would be next.
A rest centre was set up at the town’s Teviotdale Leisure Centre to provide shelter to residents of at-risk areas.
A local public house, The Bourtree, offered free tea and coffee and was preparing to stay open overnight to accommodate them.
Chief Inspector Vinnie Fisher, local area commander for the Scottish Borders, said: ‘We are working with our colleagues at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Scottish Borders Council to move those affected and ensure they are accommodated.’
Scottish Borders Council closed schools and NHS Borders shut Teviot Health Centre in the Roxburghshire town.
An £88million flood prevention scheme being built in Hawick is due for completion in 2023. Hawick Flood Group chairman Stuart Marshall said: ‘We have been working hard all day distributing sandbags.’ An update last night from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) stated the River Teviot had reached a peak of 9.5ft before receding and families were told they could return to their homes.
Earlier, 14 flood warnings were in place across the Scottish Borders, with three in Dumfries and Galloway. Flooding in Peebles was ‘very serious’ with schools closed yesterday afternoon. Seven schools shut in Dumfries and Galloway.
Elsewhere, water poured on to the street at Whitesands in Dumfries from the River Nith.
Stephen Rutt, from Dumfries, posted images of the river, saying: ‘The Nith is anarchic at the best of times, veering wildly between no flow and flood. But I have never seen it like this before.’ The downpours caused transport chaos.
Flooding shut the A709 near Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, and Traffic Scotland said it had reports of floods on the M74/A74(M) near Abington, Lanarkshire.
Nithsdale police tweeted a video of a landslide blocking the B725 and warned of flooding on that road from Dumfries to Glencaple.
Train services were disrupted, including Edinburgh to Glasgow services via Shotts and Falkirk, and Glasgow Queen Street to Alloa/Aberdeen/Inverness services. Avanti West Coast advised passengers not to travel on the west coast rail line north of Preston.
A Met Office yellow warning for southern Scotland and South Lanarkshire covered Strathclyde, Central Scotland, Tayside, Fife and the Lothians yesterday.
Forecasters expect rain today, with more disruption possible.
Sepa reported 4.5ins (116mm) of rain at Eskdalemuir Observatory, Dumfriesshire in the 36 hours to 9am yesterday.
‘We have given out sandbags’