SWEPT AWAY
Torrent destroys town’s historic bridges, while relentless deluge sparks life-threatening floods
TWO bridges were swept away and flooded roads and rail lines were forced to shut as downpours hammered parts of Scotland yesterday.
The south of the country bore the brunt of the persistent extreme rainfall, which caused rivers to burst their banks, inundating homes and businesses.
Heavy rain, which hit the Borders and Dumfriesshire on Thursday, spread to the Central Belt yesterday and continued from first light until last.
The railway line between Dumfries and Carlisle remained shut as specialist divers waited for the torrent to ease before inspecting the viaduct at Annan, Dumfriesshire.
Flooding also shut stretches of track near Hartwood and Wishaw, Lanarkshire, disruptsubsided. ing some schedules in and out of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Speed restrictions on many rail routes created further delays, though they were lifted yesterday afternoon on the West Coast Mainline route to London.
Network Rail warned the NorthEast may be the next area to face upheaval as heavy cloudbursts closed in on Aberdeen last night.
In Annan, two historic footbridges – the Diamond Jubilee Bridge, dating from 1897, and the Cuthbertson Memorial Bridge, built in 1957 to honour the town’s war dead – were swept away.
Local councillor Richard Brodie said locals were ‘in shock’, adding: ‘[The bridges] are so much a part of our DNA in the town that it is essential they are replaced as soon as possible.’
Drone footage showed severe flooding after the River Nith inundated parts of Dumfries, with an abandoned van seen bobbing in the water. Four people had to be rescued from properties in the Whitesands area of town on Thursday night.
Several homes in Dalbeattie were flooded, while roads at Lockerbie and New Galloway were shut.
But residents of 500 evacuated homes in Hawick, Roxburghshire, were allowed to return after the danger posed by the River Teviot Forecasters signalled further potential flooding chaos today, with a Met Office yellow warning in place for the Southwest region, including Glasgow, where up to 1.5 inches of rain could fall on saturated ground.
For Dumfries and Galloway, the alerts extend into tomorrow and Monday, with 27 hours of continuous rain expected. Forecaster Nicky Maxey said: ‘It is going to be pretty relentless. The position of the jet stream is simply inviting in one system after another from the west. We have mild air coming up from the Azores meeting all that moisture arriving from the Atlantic. The result is wave after wave of heavy rain bursts.’
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) last night had nine active flood warnings in the Borders, including for the Tweed at Peebles.
There were also warnings in place for other areas including a stretch of the Clyde near Larkhall, Lanarkshire, and the River Almond at Cramond, Edinburgh.
At Brydekirk, near Annan, Sepa officials recorded river levels not witnessed for 50 years. The Clyde also burst its banks near Symington, Lanarkshire.
Local resident Peter Rae, 76, said it was the worst flooding in the area for decades.
He added: ‘It’s terrible. We’re trying to get the burn cleared a wee bit but you’ve got these environmental restrictions that say, “no, you can’t do that because of the wildlife”.’