Scotland hit by severe flooding as Storm Babet brings ‘exceptional’ rainfall

Parts of eastern Scotland experienced severe flooding on Friday after Storm Babet brought “exceptional” rainfall and winds of more than 70 mph which overwhelmed defences and left thousands of homes without power.

Britain’s national weather forecaster, the Met Office, issued its first red warning for rain since February 2020, predicting some locations would see as much as 250 millimetres (9.84 inches).

A woman was killed on Thursday after being swept into a river, while Police Scotland said on Friday a search was under way after reports of a man trapped in a vehicle in floodwater.

The local authority of Angus asked more than 400 homes to evacuate on Thursday due to flood warnings, and schools were closed. Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said it was working to restore power to thousands of homes.

“Angus is in the middle of a very serious emergency. Flooding is unprecedented,” Angus Council said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.

“It has been a very challenging night … and rain will continue to fall well into Saturday so conditions will continue to deteriorate for some time.”

The Met Office said “exceptional rainfall” was expected to cause extensive flooding, road closures, loss of power and other essential services, and warned communities could be completely cut off for several days.

Angus Council said flood defences in the town of Brechin were breached at around 0300 GMT on Friday, with river levels around 4.4 metres above normal.

Some areas were now only accessible via boat and rescue crews were working to get people to safety, it added, warning people not to leave it too late to evacuate.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has 16 flood warnings and five severe flood warnings in place.