Scottish communities prepare for more floods
Warnings of high rivers and large coastal waves have been issued as persistent wind and rain batter parts of Scotland.
The Met Office has amber "be prepared" warnings for Moray, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire. The police in Tayside have warned that many roads are closed and affected by rising water across the region. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has issued about 30 flood warnings. The warnings, which mean flooding is expected, are mostly for the Tayside, Angus, and Dundee areas, as well as Aberdeen and Ballater in Aberdeenshire. Sepa has now added the Scottish Borders to its list of alerts, where flooding is possible, bringing the number of alerts to four. They come as Scotland continues to clean up after Storm Frank hit on Wednesday. Watch the latest forecast here. Vincent Fitzsimons, Sepa's hydrology duty manager, said: "Rivers have been rising since Saturday and flood warnings have been issued. "It's important to note that the rain is less intense but more prolonged than during Storm Frank. "This means that rivers will rise more slowly but then stay high for much longer - from Sunday through till Tuesday. The peak for most areas will be on Sunday night and Monday morning." A Met Office spokesman said: "Over the period ending late Monday, many areas look like receiving a further 40-80 mm of rain, with some of the high ground receiving 100-150 mm - this in addition to that which has fallen over the previous 24 hours. "However, this looks like being fairly evenly spread out, which should slightly ease the resulting impacts. "Given the saturated nature of the ground, there is a greater risk of surface water and river flooding than might normally be expected." A number of roads remain closed in Perthshire, Angus and Aberdeenshire while others have been affected by surface water. The A83 Rest and Be Thankful has temporary lights in place to allow for repairs to be carried out to the fencing and barriers following a landslip south of the area on Wednesday. Roads which have been closed or partially closed include sections of the A984 - between Meikleour and the junction at Tay Farm, West of Meikleour, and from Bendochy crossroads to Meikleour Road. A923 in Coupar Angus has been closed in both directions due to flooding between A93 Gas Brae (Blairgowrie) and Bogside Road/School Road. A824 Main Road closed due to flooding between A9 (Aberuthven) and Auchterarder. Many B roads have also been closed or blocked - the B974 at Cairn O'Mount is closed between B976 (Strachan) and School Road, Fettercairn, as is the B950 between the A924 (Kirkmichael) and A93 (Blacklunans). Network Rail said trains on the west coast mainline would be disrupted for a number of weeks as work to repair the damaged Lamington Viaduct continues until the end of January. The Trans-Pennine Express and Virgin Train services will be affected - with an additional 90 minutes added to the journey time between Carlisle and Glasgow for Virgin's west coast service. The Caledonian Sleeper service could also be affected and Network Rail said passengers should check before travelling. Rockets fired The RNLI was drafted in on Saturday evening to help restore electricity supplies to Ballater which has been without power since the storm. Despite heavy winds and driving rain, Aberdeen RNLI volunteers Bill Deans and Calum Reed used rockets to fire a cord which was used to restore the power line across the River Dee at the Cambus O' May at the A93. Scottish Hydro engineers were then able to connect up the wires and restore some power to the area. A cable damaged by Storm Frank led to the loss of the telephone service, including 999 calls, in Braemar and Crathie. Work has been carried out to repair the cable and BT and the Red Cross have provided temporary cover through communication vehicles in those areas. What have we done to make the flooding worse? Ch Insp Richard Craig said: "Police are continuing to visit vulnerable people in Braemar, Crathie and Ballater and have officers within Braemar Police Station. "Anyone requiring the emergency services is advised to speak to an officer at the police station or utilise the communication vehicles." The Scottish government's resilience committee met again on Sunday to assess the situation. Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: "People will be returning to work in the coming days and all services are working together to make sure the unusually high levels of rain that we are seeing cause as little disruption as possible." Police are advising people to stay away from already flooded areas.