No end to the floods misery
New flooding risk as more rain forecast
SCOTLAND is on flood alert again this morning – as many areas continue to battle the after-effects of Storm Frank.
The Met Office has issued yellow ‘be aware’ warnings for most of the country today, taking in Grampian, Central, Tayside, Fife, Lothian and Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.
Another wet front is then expected on Thursday, adding to the risk of rising water levels and flooding. This follows days of extreme weather that saw:
Damage to the West Coast Mainline which will see rail services disrupted until the end of January as the Lamington Viaduct, near Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, is repaired;
An elderly couple and their two dogs rescued by helicopter in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, after their house was in danger of flooding;
29 people evacuated from Allachburn care home in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, due to flooding fears;
A kayaker, named yesterday as Laurence Henderson, 54, from Aberdeenshire, swept to his death
‘Not getting a lot of help’
during stormy weather on the River Findhorn in Moray.
The Scottish Government’s resilience committee met over the weekend to assess the situation.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: ‘People will be returning to work in the coming days and all services are working together to make sure the unusually high levels of rain that we are seeing cause as little disruption as possible.’
Some of those displaced from their homes in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, one of the areas worst affected by the flooding, are still waiting to be rehomed.
Rev David Barr of Glenmuick Church in Ballater said: ‘This is a disaster. Two-thirds of this village is uninhabitable, nearly 500 properties.
‘Comments from senior managers at the council were that people have to get their holidays. I appreciate people have to get a holiday, but this is a disaster. They are an authority that has to service the community.
‘If they had the same number of boots on the ground on day one that they had on day four this would be a different place. The people feel so let down.’
Karen Tough, 56, a bus driver whose rented property in Ballater was flooded, said official support was thin on the ground. ‘It’s not great,’ she added. ‘We’re not getting a lot of help, really. We’re a bit isolated but we are getting there.’
She has been living in Victoria Barracks since she was evacuated from her home last Wednesday.
Mrs Tough said: ‘ You’re constantly soaking. I think folk outside can’t conceive i t, because we couldn’t when it happened. It’s just a nightmare.’
Aberdeenshire Council chief executive Jim Savege said: ‘We are working hard to secure alternative suitable accommodation for those affected in Ballater and our priority is for those who are the most vulnerable. We have identified accommodation for all remaining residents and expect all to be moved by the end of Tuesday.
‘ Complete recovery from the severe weather will take some time, and will require careful consideration and investment to repair.’
James Dalton, director of general insurance policy at the Association of British Insurers, said: ‘Being flooded is hugely traumatic and insurers are committed to getting help to those affected in Ballater as quickly as possible.’
Last night, police were forced to evacuate Canal Road in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. Residents were asked to take their own blankets and sleeping bags to a rest centre at Inverurie Academy, as well as any medication they might need.
As the rain continued, residents in two other streets were placed on standby to leave their homes.
Surrounded by dense forest, lush farmland and windswept Highland rock and heather, it has long been a muchloved oasis of dazzling colours and calm.
The late Queen Mother adored the ‘hermit’ qualities of this haven in the hills near Balmoral, much of which she designed herself.
Her dutiful grandson, the Prince of Wales, has not only maintained it in her memory but expanded it with an expert eye.
So he, of all people, will have been dismayed to see a large part of the gardens of Birkhall, his home on royal deeside, washed away by the latest winter storms.
Here is — or was — a celebrated garden built around the river Muick which flows through the grounds on its way to join the mighty dee a mile to the northeast. ‘The river is the magic,’ the Prince observed just over two years ago in a portrait of his Birkhall garden in Country Life magazine.
And yet it is that same river which, in recent days, has become a bulldozer, obliterating years of work on the garden, not to mention a 19th-century suspension bridge among other much-loved features.
It remains to be seen what has happened to the riverside log cabin built for the Queen Mother as an 80th birthday present — and which she called ‘The old Bull and Bush’.
The main house — with a famous collection of Spy cartoons, its special hatch for hungry red squirrels and a downstairs loo named ‘Arthur’s Seat’ after a favourite member of the Queen Mother’s household — is on high ground and untouched by the floods.
But there has been what one aide describes as ‘untold damage’ to Birkhall’s gardens. These had been filled with fruit trees, organic vegetable beds, delphiniums, dahlias and roses, not to mention the lime tree beneath which Florence nightingale met Queen Victoria. Much of it is submerged — or gone.
not that the duke of rothesay, as Prince Charles is known in Scotland, is dwelling on what he regards as a minor matter compared to the genuine disasters suffered by others. His garden can wait. For several days, the Birkhall phone lines have been humming as the Prince organises his own flood response operation.
Hogmanay came and went without fanfare, a washout in every sense. Together with the duchess of Cornwall, the Prince has been down to nearby Ballater to inspect the unprecedented devastation, and visit flood victims rehoused in a local barracks.
The couple and their staff are in close contact with local farmers, businesses and landowners — not least their neighbours, the Gordons of Abergeldie, whose family seat, Abergeldie Castle, stands on a broken bank of the dee. After a 60ft section of land was washed away, the castle now stands precariously within inches of the river.
But the Prince is well aware that a royal visit can divert officials and manpower from more important duties. For now, fact-finding missions have been kept to a minimum until they can be of more use.
Besides, as the royal Family’s resident flood envoy — he was in Cumbria just before Christmas (and was the only VIP whom furious residents of the Somerset Levels welcomed with open arms after they went under in 2014) — the Prince knows the issues inside out.
After all, he need only look out of his own window to be reminded of the scale of the latest deluge.
RATHER, he is devoting his energies to an idea which he devised himself a few years ago.
His Business emergency resilience Group (BERG), which operates under the umbrella of his Business In The Community charity, provides instant big-business help for small businesses and communities when disaster strikes — be it a flood or cyber attack. Assisted by a committee of high-powered execs from the likes of Virgin and Aviva, its regional groups offer on-the-spot advice and assistance in places like deeside, Yorkshire and Cumbria.
Yesterday, the Prince’s Countryside Fund also launched an appeal for those affected by floods in Scotland (a similar initiative for northern england was launched last month).
At the other end of the scale, the Prince is simply calling in favours. ‘He’s just been on the phone to Jim Walker, of Walkers shortbread, who agreed to send biscuits and shortbread to the emergency services,’ says one royal source.
down at the Prince’s Highgrove HQ in Gloucestershire, staff are boxing up parcels of Highgrove sloe gin and fudge as a ‘thank you’ to rescue teams. no doubt those famous princely ‘ black spider’ memos are being despatched thick and fast. There should be no charge of ‘meddling’ on this score, though. The more the better, surely.
If there is a personal dimension to all this, it’s hardly suprising. not only is the Prince a countryman at heart but Birkhall has had a very special place in his affections since he was a boy. It was here, in fact, that he and the duchess spent their honeymoon in 2005.
This handsome, cream-coloured house was built in 1715 by the same Gordons of Abergeldie. In 1852, as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert established their Highland base at Balmoral, they bought the freehold of Birkhall for their son, the Prince of Wales. The future edward VII, however, fancied something larger and l eased Abergeldie Castle,
whose tower is now clinging on against the raging Dee.
Over the years, Birkhall would be occupied by royal cousins and senior members of the Royal Household. It was Sir Dighton Probyn VC, a celebrated courtier of both the Victorian and Edwardian eras (and with a beard so long it covered his VC), who laid out some of the original gardens and began the collection of ‘Spy’ cartoons from the British magazine, Vanity Fair.
But i t was the f uture King George VI and Queen Elizabeth who, as Duke and Duchess of York, really embraced the place. Having been loaned Birkhall by George V, they soon drew up detailed plans for the gardens. In his official biography of the Queen Mother, William Shawcross recounts how, time and again throughout her life, she would derive great solace from the place.
As Duchess of York, she went there to mourn the death of her mother, the Countess of Strathmore, and ‘felt very soothed’. It was to the safety and tranquillity of Birkhall that she initially despatched Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret at the outbreak of World War II.
During the reign of George VI, the King and Queen took on Balmoral, but it was the express wish of the King that, after his death, his widowed Queen should enjoy Birkhall for the rest of her life. And so she did for several months each year, finding great comfort in completing all those plans for the garden they had first hatched together as a young married couple.
A frequent guest throughout those years was the young Prince of Wales. Back at school, he loved receiving letters from his doting grandmother full of news about the gardens and the staff.
Birkhall was also much loved by the regular house party guests whom t he Queen Mother was still entertaining long into her 90s. They would be expected to enjoy bracing picnics by day, regardless of the weather, followed by furious games of racing demon after dinner.
On the Queen Mother’s watch, Birkhall acquired a new staff wing, a new kitchen and a stairlift. But it was her garden which remains her real legacy. And, following her death in 2002, the Prince of Wales was determined to do more than just maintain it.
‘It is such a special place, particularly because it was made by my grandmother,’ he said in 2013. ‘It is a childhood garden, and all I’ve done, really, is enhance it a bit.’
He was being modest. From his new ‘stumpery’ of ferns and hostas to the lime- rendered gazebo erected in her memory and an entire new arboretum, the Prince has clearly been determined to leave his own mark.
As a gardener, he will have been dismayed by this destruction; as a devoted grandson, even more so. But he will be rather more concerned for his neighbours. For now, the phrase ‘Happy New Year’ has a very hollow ring on Deeside.