Flooding Awareness Urged

22nd December 2012

People are being encouraged to be extra vigilant in the run up to Christmas as flood warnings remain in place across Scotland.

Heavy rain overnight has affected many areas across Scotland with Central and Tayside receiving some of the heaviest. In Comrie, which has had recent flooding, the Water of Ruchill burst its banks but the flood defences recently installed by Perth and Kinross Council held the water at bay from the village.

Drivers are encouraged to drive with extra care and not take any unnecessary risks. They should check with Traffic Scotland and SEPA’s Floodline for road conditions and flood warnings.

Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse said:“As further rain is forecast I encourage people to remain vigilant this weekend. With many people needing to make last minute journeys over the festive period they should pay attention to SEPA’s Floodline.

“I participated in the Scottish Government’s Resilience operation (SGoRR) meeting earlier today to ensure we remain fully aware of the latest flooding risks across Scotland and appropriate actions are taken to ensure the risk of flooding is minimised.

“I would like to thank the efforts of local responders who have worked extremely hard and will continue to do so over the festive period.”


For real time journey information visit http://trafficscotland.org/ , follow [AT]trafficscotland on Twitter, or call 0800 028 14 14.

The full alerts, including the Chief Forecaster's Assessment and a map showing the areas included in the alerts, are available at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/warnings/

Rail, ferries and air users should check with individual service operators’ websites.

Check http://www.sepa.org.uk/ for flooding alerts.

Transport Scotland, working in partnership with the police, has developed a severe weather information strategy to warn and inform road users when significant disruption to the road network is expected during extreme weather. The advice and information service will commence when severe weather is forecast within Scotland. Forecast information will be provided in advance and during severe weather conditions. The travel advice relates to four specific stages which will be adopted depending on the severity of the weather:

Normal operations - No severe weather
Travel with caution - Police are advising people that conditions for road travel are hazardous and drivers should exercise extra caution
High risk of disruption for road journeys - Police are advising that conditions for travel are extremely poor and there is a high risk of disruption for road journeys. Travellers are likely to experience significant delays
Avoid travelling on the roads - Police advise drivers to avoid travelling on the roads. Travellers will experience severe delays of several hours or more.