Month's worth of rain in two days as Scotland is swamped

HOMES flooded, trains ground to a halt and many roads were impassable as Scotland was battered by another day of downpours yesterday.

In parts of the country, more rain fell in 36 hours than is normal for the whole of August.

The Met Office said Leuchars had 56mm of rain between 9pm on Tuesday and 8am yesterday - the average for the whole of August is 47.2mm. The isle of Great Cumbrae in the Firth of Forth had even more, with 74mm.

Commuters were badly hit. Thousands of rail passengers were stranded at Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley stations after services were cancelled due to flooded tracks.

Police reported large amounts of water on the roads. Several were closed, including the A7 between Midlothian and Edinburgh, and the B977 Fintray to Kintore road in Aberdeenshire. Fife was particularly badly hit, with more than a dozen roads either closed or impassable.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) issued 29 flood warnings and 14 flood alerts, while transport minister Keith Brown urged the public to check before they travelled.

Flood warnings remained in place for much of the country, with more rain expected today.

• We don't need them in August, but rose-tint specs are all the rage

• Forecast: More of the same to come

Flooding caused a number of train services to be cancelled or disrupted during the morning rush-hour, with services cut to half-hourly between Edinburgh and Glasgow and a reduced service on the east coast main line.

By last night, cancellations, delays and reduced services were still being experienced between Edinburgh and Glasgow, North Berwick and Dunblane.

A Network Rail spokesman said they had been working hard to try to minimise disruption.

"We have had hundreds of staff working around the clock since the weekend to keep as many services as possible running," he said.

"Flood water is a serious issue for the safe operation of the railway, as it can cause signalling systems to fail and damage track beds.

"While we are working hard to drain water from the lines, our efforts are being affected by the sheer volume of rainwater which has fallen over the last two days and by run-off water from surrounding land."

Steve Montgomery, ScotRail's managing director, said: "We ran 86 per cent of services across Scotland this morning, despite extraordinary rainfall levels in some areas.

"We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the disruption."

More rain is on the way, according to forecasters. Matt Dobson, of MeteoGroup, the weather arm of the Press Association, said: "Quite a lot of the Central Belt has seen 45mm and 60mm over the last 24 hours, explaining why flooding is pretty likely."

He added: "More rain is on the way.On Friday night, there is a band of rain which will be quite heavy moving across Scotland. There is a very showery weekend to come as well.

"As the ground is saturated with water, flooding will be more likely."

Few areas of the country escaped the disruption. In Fife, a mile-long stretch of road on the outskirts of St Andrews was completely blocked and police urged drivers to avoid a road into the village of St Monans. Roads leading to Anstruther and Crail were covered with deep water.

In Rosyth, firefighters used sand bags and pumped water to prevent homes flooding after a burn burst its banks near Park Road.

In Kilmany Grove, Kilmany, several houses were flooded.

Perth and Kinross Council announced that the Perth Highland Games, due to take place on Sunday, had been cancelled. The authority said this was because of the bad weather conditions and the forecast of further rain.

In the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh, the Water of Leith was running high and sandbags were put down as a preventative measure.

Grampian Housing deployed flood defence guards to doors and windows of about 50 homes.

Tayside Fire and Rescue Service pumped water out of a restaurant basement that had flooded in the early hours of yesterday morning in the village of Wellbank, near Dundee.

Sepa issued flood warnings for Central Scotland, Tayside, Fife, Edinburgh and Lothian, the Borders, Dundee and Angus, Argyll and Bute, west central Scotland, Ayrshire and Arran, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City and Skye and Lochaber.

In Aberdeenshire, the council continued to monitor the River Deveron, which came close to overflowing its banks into the Meadows area of Huntly.

A rest centre was opened at the Gordon Schools during Wednesday night for Huntly residents but was not needed.

Aberdeenshire Council chief executive Colin Mackenzie said: "I would like to pay tribute to the men and women who have been working all night monitoring the situation and ensuring that our residents were being kept informed about how it was progressing."

He added: "I would still urge residents to remain vigilant for the time being."

A spokesman for Sepa said: "We expect to see a gradual rise in river levels.

"But as rain is persistent rather than thundery downpours, we do not expect to see any sudden increases."