25 January 2019
Nearly half of all flooding events along Scotland’s North East coast have historically taken place in January, according to recent analysis for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
SEPA is urging homeowners and businesses in the North East to be prepared for flooding by signing up to Floodline, which provides a free 24/7 flood warning service across Scotland.
A new flood warning scheme for Scotland’s North East coast went live in September 2018, adding eight new flood warning areas to SEPA’s Floodline service. These are:
- Inverallochy to St Coombs
- St Fergus Gas Terminal
- Peterhead to Boddam
- Port Errol to Newburgh
- Aberdeen Coastal
- Stonehaven
- Inverbervie to Tangleha
- Montrose
The scheme, developed in partnership with Aberdeenshire Council, Aberdeen City Council and Angus Council, gives communities and businesses time to take action to reduce the damage and disruption that flooding can cause.
Vincent Fitzsimons, Head of Hydrology and Flooding Services at SEPA, said: “Being flooded can be a life-changing event, and with so many homes and businesses along Scotland’s North East at risk of flooding, it’s vital to be prepared. It may not be stormy right now, but many previous coastal flood events happened in January, so signing up to this free service is an easy new year’s resolution to get done if you drive through, live or work in flood risk areas.
“Our new coastal flood warning scheme will be particularly relevant to 2,029 properties at risk of flooding along the North East coast and will cover 125km of coastline from Inverallochy to Montrose. That means we’ll be offering a more localised flood warning service to another 17 communities. This improved service for coastal communities between Firth of Forth and Tay and the Moray Firth, means the whole of the east coast of Scotland is now covered by flood warnings.”
Mairi Gougeon, Scottish Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, said:
“The Scottish Government has committed £420 million over 10 years to protect homes in many of Scotland’s most flood-prone communities. This new coastal flood warning scheme for the North East of Scotland is a key part of this work and will play a vital role in helping to alert local communities to flooding.”
SEPA’s Flood Warning Development Framework makes a number of strategic commitments to reduce the impact of flooding by improving the provision of reliable and timely flood warning. One of these was to establish a flood warning scheme across coastal areas of the North East of Scotland.
As Scotland’s national authority for flood forecasting and warning, SEPA operates Floodline as a 24-hour flood forecasting and warning service to inform first responders, local authorities and emergency services of emerging flood events and the potential impact on local communities and critical infrastructure.
Hundreds of regional Flood Alerts and local Flood Warnings get issued every year and over 27,000 customers nationwide opt to receive these directly, with many thousands more accessing them online.
The new warning areas for the North East coast were launched alongside a further 11 flood warning schemes for Orkney. Together, these represent a significant investment and enhancement of Scotland’s overall resilience to the impact of climate change and extreme weather.
You can always check if your community is within a flood risk area by checking SEPA’s online flood maps, but this can’t provide property level information. http://map.sepa.org.uk/floodmap/map.htm
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