Flooding, transport disruption and power cuts hits north east as rain continues

Scotland and north east England have been hit by transport disruption, flooding and power cuts as heavy rainfall continues.

Forecasters have issued an amber rain warning for an area of north east Scotland stretching from just north of Dundee up past Aberdeen until 9pm on Friday.

Meanwhile a yellow rain warning is also in place along the Scottish east coast from the English border up to Peterhead until 6pm on Friday.

Forecasters say that around 100ml of rain is expected to fall in areas of Scotland from Thursday until Friday evening, with upwards of 150ml in the Grampian Mountains.

It comes after a band of rain hit the south west coast on Wednesday evening before travelling north east over two days and causing flooding in many areas of the UK, accompanied by cooler temperatures in a change to the unseasonably warm weather.

As of Friday morning, the Environment Agency has 11 flood warnings and 81 flood alerts in place and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has issued 26 warnings and nine alerts.

Footage and photos shared on social media shows flooding in major roads and trainlines across the north and in Scotland.

Most rail services to and from Aberdeen were suspended on Friday morning after lines were flooded while hundreds of homes have also lost power in communities around the city, according to Scottish and Southern Energy Networks’ online tracker.

Dundee and Edinburgh have also seen major road closures due to flooding while Newcastle, Sunderland, Gatehead, and Doncaster are among the places facing travel disruptions to rail networks, metro lines, roads and bus services.

Hundreds of people were left stranded at Newcastle Station due to the cancelled services north to Scotland, with huge queues for replacement buses and passengers told they may have to wait up to five hours to board.

Queues for the bus services stretched hundreds of metres down the street outside the city centre station and spiralled around the concourse inside.

One woman heading for Edinburgh said: “This just can’t be happening. I’ve got a health condition and I can’t wait outside like this.”

James Brownhill, from London, said: “It’s just chaos. But there’s nothing you can do. If it’s flooded, it’s flooded.

“I think I’m just going to have to stay in Newcastle tonight.”

Met Office spokesperson Stephen Dixon warned that areas of Scotland could see homes and businesses flooding even as the rain eases later on Friday while gusts could blow in excess of 50 knots.

He said: “Rain should ease later in the day but because of the delayed reaction of rivers to rain, some flooding events could still happen.

“There will be persistent and widespread rain for most of Scotland today as well,” he said.

Mr Dixon said the rain will slowly peeter out this evening and overnight and things will largely clear up for much of the UK with some sporadic showers.

He also said temperatures are expected to drop, going as low as -4C in Northern Ireland, adding: “Fairly widespread frost is possible for much of the UK.”

While Saturday will be clear, Sunday sees another front of rain and heavy wind moving in from the West bringing the chance of thunder and lightning, Mr Dixon said.

“That sets up what is really the theme of the next week which is continued wet and windy weather for much of the UK,” he added.

Elsewhere, Yorkshire Water said reservoir levels are “moving in the right direction” in the region which is still officially classed as being in a drought.

But Environment Agency data shows that Yorkshire had the same amount of rainfall in September and October than it did over the whole summer with reservoir levels going up 19% in the last six weeks, although still below the expected level for November.