Brechin Beyond Babet
It’s two years since Brechin was hit by Storm Babet and we’re asking when it will move Beyond Babet
Last updated 21st Oct 2025
Storm Babet hit Brechin in October 2023 with 200mm of rain in just two days falling in the wettest parts of the area, causing serious flooding in the town.
Flood defences, built to defend against water levels up to 3.7 meters, were breached as water levels surged to 4.6 meters.
Over 138 properties, including houses, flats and caravans, suffered significant flood damage with 88 remaining empty two years on.
In our special report, our reporter Dale Eaton is investigating why, after all this time, so many people are still not back in their homes, why the river defences have not yet been strengthened, and if the horrors of the 20th October 2023 could be repeated.
Listen to our special report, Brechin Beyond Babet, here:
‘The devastation is still evident ‘
Here’s the story in Dale’s words.
I was in Brechin when Storm Babet hit. I watched people put down sandbags as the wind and rain battered the town.
I returned the next day to see utter devastation. Doors I’d knocked on the previous day were inaccessible, people’s homes flooded and a street indistinguishable with the river itself.
Two years on many of those who left their homes that night still haven’t returned and those who have, are living next door to empty homes where friends and neighbours once lived.
Walking in the area today, the devastation of October 2023 is still evident, even more so when you speak to those who lived through it.
‘It doesn’t feel like home anymore’
Mandy and Herbert Johnson have lived in their Nursery Park flat for over 30 years.
They were trapped in their home as flood water surged down their street.
Since then, many neighbours haven’t returned, and they’ve faced incidents of anti-social behaviour and vandalism.
Mandy tells me the impact the storm has had two years on: “Depression, anxiety. I know for me I’ve had a good bit of anxiety; you constantly talk about it you see, what’s going to happen?”
Herbert echoes her thoughts: “We converse about it all the time. I guess, with the uncertainty, with the way the place looks and with the feel, and so forth, it just doesn’t feel like home anymore.”
Angus Council is currently progressing with plans to demolish the leisure centre and empty Meikle Mill block of flats and design plans to increase the flood defence wall by half a meter and remove the gravel bar are ongoing.
They’re also moving to stage two of a consultation on the future of the empty homes in the area.
Despite the plans, Herbet isn’t satisfied: “If they were saying, we’re going to do this, this and this in Nursery Park, that directly affects you, that would be more advantageous, that would be more informative. But that’s not what you’re getting.
“You’re getting a lot of we’re finding out this, we’re engaging with so and so. We’re talking two years, it’s not like two weeks ago or two months ago, and you still don’t have anything specific to you as a person.
“So, all the things they’re (Angus Council) putting out might be good for council business, it might be good for some of the people you talk about with flood defences and the professionals and so forth, but the resident, that’s not giving you a lot of information.
“They’re giving you a bone with no meat on it and expecting you to find meat on it and there isn’t any.”
What happened to the man who told me he wasn’t evacuating?
When I walked down River Street two years ago, I spotted John Stewart attaching a flood gate in his front garden.
He made time for an interview where he told me was planning to sit the storm out in the upstairs of his home with his wife.
I caught up with the now 84-year-old who told me what happened after our interview: “We were in the high school for a night (Brechin Community Campus rest centre)
“They thought I was going to be taking a heart attack for some unknown reason. There was just a nurse came to me and ask me If I was alright and stuff. He says we’re going to get you out to a hotel and get you away from this environment.
“So, I went to Edzell for six week which was terrible. Staying in a hotel, one room, it’s like being in jail. You just go and eat and go back to your room.
“But we’ve survived and we’re strong enough I think.”
‘We’re doing very well’
A main attraction in River Street is the Bridgend Bar.
As the storm hit, they faced a wall of water as it spilled into the pub and into its cellars while engulfing its beer garden.
Two years on and they're back on their feet and thriving, so owner Scott McNeil tells me: “We’re doing very well. We’re doing far better than I would ever have expected.
“I guess those things can maybe floor you but, we had not long done it up anyway, but we made certain changes to the place, and it’s just been so well received and we’re really busy. We’re attracting people from as far as Dundee and Aberdeen which makes me very proud.”
With their success driving people to the area, the devastation of the flooding isn’t lost on them: “Everybody that comes, even if they’re driving from other towns, they’re coming through this and going what’s going on, two years.
“They guys have got houses and they’ve maybe got a flat above the ground floor, the damp is rising up through them. It really needs to be sorted and a long-term approach.
“The residents here, including me, businesses, everybody is on the same page, and I just hope the council grasp that. They need more reassurance. Never mind building and restructuring, are we going to put in more a more solid defence?”
‘The issues that were here three years ago are still here’
With hundreds of people in Brechin suddenly out of a home, they needed somewhere to turn for support.
That hub was Brechin Buccaneers, The Crickety.
The community support arm of the cricket club raised funds, provided decorating grants, clothing, electrical goods and counselling. They continue to host council services and are still handing out support funding as some families move home.
As a group offering support to the most in need in Brech, flood affected or not, Grant Hutchison, Community Development Manager, feels the prolonged flood recovery is detracting from other issues in the town: “The issues that were here three years ago are still here. They’ve never changed.
“My thoughts at the moment is that we need to do something about the issues that were here three years ago as well.
“You’re here because Brechin is about flooding. It’s not, it’s about a lot more than flooding. I’m not saying avoid the flooding stuff but there are 80% of the town not directly affected.”
‘These things sadly take time’
Angus Council have appointed environmental and engineering consultancy firm JBA Consulting to develop designs for the planned uplift of Brechin’s Flood Protection Scheme.
The local authority is soon set to move to phase two of its housing consultation where residents are considering the options of the complete removal of council housing in the area, removal and replacement elsewhere in the town or the remodelling of the existing housing stock.
The main question residents and businesses want to know the answer to is when will this happen? When will Brechin begin to move beyond Babet.
I put it to Brechin and Edzell Councillor and Housing Convenor Jill Scott and here’s what she said: “Once the consultation is an we have the results of that we’ll be able to make decisions and then we’ll know where we’re at with that.
“I understand that it’s frustrating for people, it's frustrating for me, but these things sadly take time. I think people are under the impression that there’s been nothing going on but there has been a huge amount of work in the background, and we should start to see that come to fruition in the coming year.”
She added: “Obviously any work that’s going to be done, take for instance the uplifting of the wall and the removal of the gravel bar down to river level, that would take a lot of work. It’s licenses from SEPA, it’s not just council decisions, there are other agencies involved in this.
“So, I couldn’t tell you the time scales to be honest right now.”
‘We can’t engineer ourselves out of the situation’
Storm Babet brought extremely high levels of rainfall when it hit in October 2023, leading to the devastation in Brechin.
Around 200mm of rain fell in the wettest areas, making it one of the wettest days in Angus on record.
After such a devastating storm, it is natural to fear a repeat. I asked Christopher White, Professor in Climate Extremes and Resilience at The University of Strathclyde, if it could happen again. Here’s what he told us: “The other aspect of climate change is the increased likelihood of really extreme rainfall. That doesn’t necessarily couple with more frequent storms, but it certainly couples with the idea of when we do get storms that we’re starting to see much more rainfall, and more extreme rainfall when they do occur.
“I think what we saw with Storm Babet is exactly that. We saw some really, really heavy rainfall. Very high totals, high amounts of rainfall over a short period of time. Nothing can really cope with that level of rainfall.
“It’s difficult though to say, is there an upward trend of these things, yes in the sense that we’re definitely seeing more of these extremes and the projections in the future are unfortunately for more of those really extreme periods and then with perhaps drier periods in between. Can that be directly related to Brechin and any one particular place? Not really, because every event is different.
“The general message, the general science, unfortunately suggests that we are very much in a period of change.”
With the country facing more extreme rainfall, which is only set to become more frequent, it leads to the questions of how best to prepare and defend against future flooding. Christopher tells us there’s no easy answer to that: “In a general sense, that debate is still very much ongoing. There’s lots of money that’s being committed to increasing flood defences, very good, but, with a changing climate and more extreme rainfall, we can’t engineer ourselves out of the situation that we find ourselves in with climate change.
“So, I think our solutions let’s say, or our options are a blend of both of what we would call traditional engineering approaches, hard engineering approaches, but moving a bit towards adopting nature-based solutions. Working a bit more with nature, that means using the broader catchment a bit more, trying to mimic nature.
“One part of that might be in some cases, not in specific reference to Brechin, is to look at managed retreat. There are some areas that just simply in time will become unliveable, perhaps.