Misery of a month of rain in just 48 hours

Fresh flooding warning as another deluge sweeps in this weekend

STORM-LASHED Scotland is set to be deluged for the second time in a week after forecasters issued a severe weather warning last night.

As thousands of Scots pick up the pieces from the worst flooding in two decades, a month’s worth of rain is set to fall in only 48 hours this weekend.

The fresh downpours, which could inundate yet more homes and cause further devastation to those already affected, were announced by the Met Office in an amber alert put out yesterday warning of ‘potential risk to life’.

The warning lasts from midday today to Monday afternoon and covers central Scotland, Fife, Tayside and Grampian. The latter two areas were among those worst hit by Storm Frank last week.

The Scottish Government has warned of more misery as saturated ground is at even greater risk of flooding again.

Vincent Fitzsimons, a duty hydrology manager for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), said: ‘We are expecting flooding, particularly in parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus and Tayside. The risk is highest from Saturday afternoon

‘Warning of potential risk to life’

through till Monday.

‘We are keeping a particularly close eye on communities in those areas of the North-East that have already been affected by flooding, or where defences may have been damaged. There is also a risk of significant travel disruption and disruption to utilities in these areas.’

More than 6,000 homes were left without power and hundreds of people were evacuated after Wednesday’s killer storm tore through the country. The body of a man in his fifties was pulled from the River Findhorn in Moray after he was caught in rapids whipped up by the weather while kayaking.

Yesterday it was disclosed that a 36-yearold man who fell from a canoe after getting into trouble on the River Garry in Inverness-shire has also died.

He and an 18-year-old were rescued on Thursday and treated at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. The teenager has been discharged.

Following the wettest December recorded in Scotland, it had been hoped the worst was over as the £800million clean-up began.

But Gordon McKinstry, the Met Office’s forecaster in Aberdeen, said: ‘We are seeing low-pressure systems over the Atlantic, which normally move up to Iceland, but the jet stream is taking a slightly different path and so the lows are coming towards Europe instead and bringing the cold air and rain.’

The Met Office has also warned of gale-force south-easterly winds expected on the East Coast and the Northern Isles. Snow and ice are forecast for Grampian, Angus and Borders hills on Monday.

The deluge will not match Storm Frank when close to a month’s worth of rain fell in Tyndrum, Argyll, between 6pm on Tuesday and 3pm the next day. But there are fears the rain, set to reach 8in in some parts over the weekend, could overwhelm flood defences.

Ballater, in Aberdeenshire, is still particularly vulnerable and there are also concerns for Dumfries and Galloway which, along with Lothian and the Borders, is subject to a yellow warning from the Met Office.

Transport Minister Derek Mackay said: ‘We have cleared drainage systems in advance of the rain but localised flooding is inevitable.’

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