RESCUE BOATS BACK ON THE STREET
Misery goes on as it is revealed 14 inches of rain fell last month
SCOTLAND’S winter of misery continued yesterday as yet more parts of the country were hit with severe flooding.
Stranded residents were evacuated by boat after the relentless rain led to water ripping through towns and villages.
In Perth homes and businesses were flooded as roads were submerged in knee-deep water.
On Marshall Place, beside the River Tay, drains could not cope with the onslaught of water. Other areas were also affected, including neighbouring South Inch.
Fire crews with boats rescued people from their homes and helped others with the distribution of sandbags as water levels climbed.
Colin Grieve, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s senior officer for Perth and Kinross, Angus and Dundee, said: ‘This has been a traumatic time for everyone affected. Fire and rescue personnel have worked tirelessly, along with local resilience partners, to minimise the impact on those affected by the weather and related conditions.’
Even Perth Sheriff Court could not escape the damage. Yesterday Sheriff Lindsay Foulis took the unusual step of holding the custody court a mile away from the court building.
A dozen cases were heard at a meeting room in Perth police headquarters after court cells disappeared under more than a foot of water.
As the rain kept falling, the Met Office revealed December 2015 saw more than double the monthly average rainfall. Figures released yesterday showed that almost 14in of rain saturated Scotland last month.
That amounts to 115 per cent more than the average December figure recorded between 1981 and 2010. The only place wetter than Scotland was Wales.
Unusually high December temperatures were also recorded, with the UK’s mean temperature of 7.9C (46F) for the month breaking the record of 6.9C (44F) set in 1934.
As more people fled their homes, the disruption to road networks continued. The A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful was closed again last night after concerns were raised that a 150-ton boulder was at risk of crashing down the hillside.
The notorious section was also closed last week after two cars were caught up in the latest landslip in the wake of Storm Frank.
Yesterday local businesses urged First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to order new road safety measures.
Meanwhile efforts are under way to reconnect Braemar, which has been isolated from the rest of Aberdeenshire since Storm Frank washed away a section of the A93.
Aberdeenshire Council is to start work on a temporary road into the village, which is expected to be in place within the next week.
Just a few miles away in Ballater, one of the areas worst affected by Storm Frank, locals are continuing to salvage what is left of the village on Royal Deeside.
Yesterday, near the caravan site destroyed when the River Dee swept through it last Wednesday, people could be seen looking not just for lost possessions but for whole caravans that floated away.
One caravan owner, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘Some people had their life savings in these caravans. They just floated away like corks. We were lucky to have caravan insurance but other people here didn’t. We won’t be able to come back – there’s too much of a risk of it happening again.’
Alistair Cassie, 70, owner of an ironmonger’s in Ballater, said the recent floods could be the ‘death knell’ for the village.
He said: ‘Businesses are struggling, the whole place is struggling. I’m involved in the caravan site, which the community took over from the council a few years ago. It was making good progress until all of a sudden it was wiped out.
‘It might not be a site again for a couple of years, we don’t know. At the moment it’s operation tidy-up.’
Families were forced to leave their houses in the Kintore and Inverurie areas of Aberdeenshire after the
‘Caravans floated away like corks’
River Don burst i ts banks on Monday.
Rising water levels also saw properties hit by flooding in low-lying areas of nearby Port Elphinstone. Rest centres were opened at Kintore Public Hall and Inverurie Academy on Sunday night.
Meanwhile in Dundee yesterday, 33 properties were evacuated by police at Gourlay Yard, City Quay, amid concerns about the safety of the roof on the building.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service temporarily secured some sections of the roof, with permanent repairs expected to be carried out later this week. Barriers have also been erected to stop pedestrian access to the area.
More rain is forecast for the next few days, with a yellow ‘be aware’ warning in place tomorrow for Grampian, Central, Tayside, Fife, Dumfries, Galloway, Lothian and Borders.
It seems there could be some respite for those wearied by the floods next week – although this might not last long.
A Met Office spokesman said: ‘It looks like it remains unsettled and showery over the weekend but there are signs, as we go through next week, that we start to see slightly colder air and a change of wind direction.’
She said there was a chance that showers next week will fall as snow, as temperatures begin to drop.
‘With a change of wind direction it looks like other areas will be affected as well so I think it will give a little bit of recovery time,’ she added.
However the forecaster warned: ‘It doesn’t look like it will be long lasting. It looks as though, as we head towards the following week or weekend, we start seeing a return of the winds coming from the West or South-West. Although the timing of that is uncertain.’
Police have named a canoeist who died after capsizing in a river on Hogmanay.
Petrus Janse Van Rensburg fell out of a canoe with a friend on the River Garry, near Invergarry, Inverness-shire, last Thursday.
The 36-year- old, from Buckinghamshire, and his friend were taken to Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, where Mr Van Rensburg later died.
Police said a report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.