The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Flood-wrecked family faces
FAMILIES FORCED from their homes by Friday’s floods spent the weekend embarking on a massive clear-up operation.
People were trapped in their houses and others had to be rescued from vehicles as the torrential downpour on Thursday night and Friday morning caused flash floods across Tayside and Fife.
One house in Dura Den, near Cupar, which had its gable wall swept away by a river of water is thought to be beyond repair.
The torrent also caused part of the road through the picturesque community to collapse and cascade through two houses below.
The Hughes family, who own the two properties and live in one, were yesterday attempting to clear out their home but expect it may be many months before the damage is put right.
Part of their garden has collapsed into the Ceres Burn, which burst its banks and the remainder was strewn with bricks and rubble from the house and road above.
The lower floors of their house and the adjoining house, which is rented out, were full of mud and debris.
Student Storm Hughes (21), who was alone in the house, told how he was woken in the early hours by a neighbour to see water cascading from the roadway towards them.
Neighbour Paul Carrier thought the house was empty and had come to rescue the family’s cats but found Storm asleep. Storm said: “It was quite frightening. “I walked through about an inch of water and didn’t think it was that bad but when we got to the door we had to push our way out and close it behind us.
“The water in our garden looked like rapids, carrying all the rubble from next door down.”
His mother Louise, who rushed home from a holiday in Florida with children Dakota (16) and Roarke (13), said: “Everyone is okay, so it could have been considerably worse.
“I have four children and the thought of anything happening to them is much worse.”
She said the elderly parents-in-law of Mr Carrier, who were staying with him and wife Lori, had a lucky escape, as their bedroom flooded first.
The couple, visiting from Alabama, US, were sleeping in a basement bedroom when the flood water cascaded through their patio doors.
The water rose so quickly they had to open windows on the other side of the house to allow it to flow through.
Fife Council duty floods manager Jim Coleman said surveyors will be dispatched in the coming days to look at the weir where the burn burst its banks and the C45 road through Dura Den.
He said: “The burn burst its banks and a significant amount of water has flowed down the road as a consequence of the heavy rain.
“We will be having a good look at this and identifying the reason this happened and what repairs are necessary to prevent it happening again.”
The B942 near Colinsburgh, which also suffered erosion, is also to be assessed and both roads, he said, were likely to remain closed for some time yet.
All other Fife roads closed by flooding have reopened.
Council teams were out over the weekend sweeping away debris and silt and will return to north-east Fife today.
Meanwhile firefighters were yesterday continuing to pump away water threatening to flood houses in Upper Largo.
Crews had been at North Feus since 10am on Friday morning clearing water which had run off fields and was overwhelming a culvert beside residential properties.