Heavy rain and floods expected as Scotland recovers from Storm Babet

Flood warnings have been issued and the Met Office has extended an alert for heavy rain in the wake of Storm Babet.

SEPA warned Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City, Dundee, Angus, and Tayside to prepare for disruption.

“River levels are expected to rise overnight tonight and remain high during the weekend, but not as high as experienced during Storm Babet,” the environment agency said.

A yellow weather warning for persistent rain that comes into force at midday on Thursday due to end on Saturday has been extended until Sunday.

The alert covers Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee, Stirling and Perth and Kinross – all the areas that were worst impacted by extreme rain and wind during Storm Babet.

It originally did not include Stirling, but in an update shortly before 5pm on Thursday, the Met Office said that the rain warning has been extended as far west as the edge of Stirling and the likelihood of impacts has been increased

Seven people died due to the severe weather, including three in Scotland; Wendy Taylor, 57, of Perthshire; John Gillan, 56, of Arbroath; and Peter Pelling, 61, also of Arbroath.

Police Scotland

The Met Office has warned of further flooding, damage to homes and disruption to transport.

“On Wednesday, we’ve had no more than around 5/6mm – but any rain in the north east is not really welcome after the awful impacts and devastation caused by Storm Babet,” said STV weather presenter Philip Petrie.

“The yellow warning from the Met Office has been issued with the consideration in mind that parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross have already seen such high levels of rainfall, flooding and the ground is already highly saturated here.

“The rain will be less heavy than last week, but we are likely to see more flooding in places because of the saturated ground.”

The latest Scottish Flood Forecast update said: “There is a possibility of some localised impacts from rivers and surface water on Thursday and Friday in the north east, Caithness and Sunderland, and Easter Ross and Great Glen due to further heavy rain.

“Rivers levels in the north east are not forecast to be as high as experienced during Storm Babet and widespread significant flooding is not currently expected.”

Elsewhere, Network Rail Scotland warned: “More extremely heavy rain is on the way. It won’t be to the levels from Storm Babet, but it will affect the same areas, already with saturated ground. It will bring a risk of flooding.”

LNER have revealed there will be extremely limited train services between Edinburgh and Aberdeen from Friday to Monday, while a speed restriction imposed by Network Rail will create “significant disruption” to it’s services.

Seven dead and hundreds lose homes in Storm Babet

It comes as roads begin to reopen in the aftermath of Storm Babet.

The A90, between Forfar and Brechin, Angus, has been reopened in both directions from Dundee to Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, under a contraflow, after engineers were able to examine two “high-risk” structures hit by the storm.

Wild weather caused considerable erosion of the bridge at Finavon, carrying the A90 over the River South Esk, and a contraflow traffic management system was introduced to enable safe crossing until repairs are completed.

Aberlemno Primary School near Brechin has yet to reopen after Angus Council said the B9134 was “no longer judged to be safe”, and a skip was provided for people to dispose of items from flood-damaged homes.

A GoFundMe page set up by Brechin Flood Relief has so far raised £32,369 to help families who were not covered by insurance, and one person even offered an empty flat for people left homeless.

An anonymous donor gave £2,500.

The gym at Brechin Community Campus was “half full” of items donated to help families in need.

The storm claimed three lives in Scotland including that of Peter Pelling, from Arbroath, who became trapped in his car in floodwater.

A search was launched at about 3am on Friday after police received a report near Marykirk, Aberdeenshire.

Mr Pelling’s body and car were recovered on Monday.

Wendy Taylor, 57, died after being swept into the Water of Lee, Glen Esk, on Thursday.

John Gillan, 56, also died on Thursday after a tree hit his van as he was driving on the B9127 at Whigstreet near Forfar.

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