Dundee mops up after floods

More than 100 shops and businesses in central Dundee began clearing up yesterday after they were hit by some of the worst flooding seen in the city.

Areas of the city centre were under 4ft of water after the downpour struck just after 5pm on Thursday.

The sudden torrential rain, combined with a high tide, brought chaos to the city centre during rush-hour as the sewerage and drainage systems were unable to cope with the volume of water.

The damage is thought to run to hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Firefighters from Tayside Fire and Rescue Service worked well into Thursday night to pump out water and sewage from building basements.

Although much of the water had receded by yesterday morning, three appliances were still pumping water from an underground car park in Candle Lane.

Since calls began flooding into the service at around 5.30pm, firefighters attended 31 incidents in addition to other emergency callouts.

“Our firefighters performed extremely well and calls were coming in so quickly they were just immediately going from one incident to another,” said watch manager Fraser Raitt.

A city council spokesman said environmental health officers visited properties affected by sewage overflows to assess the situation and offer advice where necessary.

The council also plans to instal a new sewer system as part of its redevelopment of the waterfront area which will help resolve the flooding problems in Dock Street, one of the worst-hit areas.

Scottish Water said all agencies had to work together to establish the cause of the localised flooding, ensure short-term measures were put in place and look at long-term issues.

According to the Met Office conditions are expected to settle down with mainly dry weather over the weekend although steady rain is expected at the beginning of next week.