90 Perthshire Homes Evacuated After Severe Flooding

Around 90 flooded properties have been evacuated and several motorists were rescued from cars after heavy rain lashed parts of the country.

Perthshire was particularly badly hit with serious flooding across the region.

Heavy rain also forced the suspension of play for several hours at the 144th Open Championship in St Andrews, Fife.

The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning of rain for much of Scotland for the rest of the day.

Sepa has issued 17 flood warnings and five flood alerts.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said it helped evacuate people from 70 flooded properties in one street in Alyth, Perthshire, and 20 properties in another road.

Firefighters also helped rescue several people stranded in their vehicles by flood water in the town.

Five properties in Bankfoot, Perthshire, have also been evacuated due to flooding.

Colin Grieve, SFRS local senior officer for Perth and Kinross, Dundee and Angus, said: Our crews are doing some excellent work and have had an extremely busy morning due to the high number of flooding incidents we have attended.

I would also like to pay tribute to our control staff who have done a fantastic job during what has been an incredibly busy day so far.

Everyone is working together to assist members of the public and the service is liaising closely with its emergency services partners to ensure people's safety and well-being.''

Fire crews have also been attending reports of flooding in Perth, Blairgowrie, Glen Isla and Coupar Angus.

At the Open, organisers suspended proceedings around 10 minutes after the first players teed off at 6.32am as conditions worsened.

Greens, fairways and bunkers were flooded and an army of greenkeepers set to work on clearing the standing water, with play resuming at around 10am.

A total of 14mm of rain fell at Leuchars near St Andrews between 6pm yesterday and 6am today.

The Met Office yellow be aware'' warning covers the Central, Tayside and Fife, Grampian, Highlands, Western Isles and Strathclyde regions.

The warning, which is valid until 1pm tomorrow, says persistent and sometimes rather heavy rain will develop again across parts of western Scotland on Friday evening, lasting into the first part of Saturday.

The rain will be accompanied by strong west or south-westerly winds, with gales especially along some exposed coasts this evening and for a time overnight. Gusts of wind may exceed 55mph there, but more widely 35 to 45mph inland.''

Richard Brown, head of hydrology at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency said: The current band of heavy rain is expected to clear across Aberdeenshire and north eastern areas during this afternoon, with the potential for continued surface water flooding due to high rainfall totals overnight and this morning.

Areas of Central Scotland, Tayside, Dundee and Angus have experienced significant disruption following an intense period of rainfall this morning which caused widespread surface water on roads and built up areas.

The rivers Earn, Almond, Carron and South Esk have responded quickly this morning with flooding in isolated stretches causing disruption to local communities and infrastructure. There may well be further impacts this afternoon in low lying areas although the situation will generally improve overnight.

Overnight into Saturday, a further band of rain is due to affect areas of Ayrshire, Argyll and Bute, Glasgow and west central Scotland, with the most intense, prolonged showers expected on Saturday morning.

Skye and Lochaber are expected to experience significant rainfall totals overnight and throughout Saturday, with over 80mm of rain forecast. Again, surface water flooding has the potential to cause widespread disruption on road networks and urban areas, while river levels are likely to respond quickly, with some minor disruption possible in rural areas.

Whilst large waves are expected along the west coast, particularly around the Inner Hebrides, the risk of coastal flooding remains very low.

We would strongly encourage people to remain vigilant and be mindful of these conditions in their locality and when travelling.''

He said people can access the latest flood updates for their area via our website and sign up to the Floodline direct warning service by calling 0345 988 1188.