Council issues weather warning
Kirsty Gibbins • Published 9 Jul 2012 09:30
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Anne McDonough, from Musselburgh, took this shot of the River Esk bursting its banks on Saturday afternoon. If you have any photos of flooding and wild weather from around the county please send them to editorial@eastlothiancourier.com
Drivers are being warned to take extra care as further downpours were predicted for East Lothian in the coming days.
East Lothian Council has issued a warning for the potential of further heavy rain from 4pm tomorrow (Tuesday) til 8am on Wednesday..
Although all roads in the county are now open, some smaller roads are only passable with care because of surface water damage to the roads themselves or embankment landslips narrowing the roads.
Roads around Morham, Stenton and Garvald and the Garvald to Whiteadder roads have been affected in this way.
Council staff are working on repairs to roads and dealing with any surface water still affecting routes around the county.
While flood warnings on the River Tyne at Haddington and the River Esk in Musselburgh have been lifted by SEPA, river levels remain high and are being monitored.
On Saturday, flood prevention plans went into action in Haddington and Musselburgh including the laying of sandbags and the deployment of flood barriers in Musselburgh to protect the town centre.
People whose properties are liable to flooding are being reminded that it is their responsibility to ensure they have a supply of protective equipment including sandbags and flood barriers where appropriate.
The council is unable to provide sandbags to the general public as resources are limited and must be used in line with our severe weather priorities.
Councillor Norman Hampshire, cabinet member for environment, said: "While we have the utmost sympathy for people whose properties have been affected by these extreme weather conditions, I would stress that householders need to be prepared to help themselves and where possible help vulnerable neighbours too.
"In conditions like these, council staff are working flat out to deal with the worst affected areas so we don't have the resources to deliver sandbags to individuals. On Saturday, our call centre saw a 400 per cent increase in calls and a very large number of these were from people asking where they could get flood prevention aids. Given that the weather forecast for the next fortnight is for more rain, I would urge people to act now to protect their properties."
Advice on what to do in severe wet weather and a reminder that flood prevention equipment can be bought from DIY stores is available on www.eastlothian.gov.uk and on SEPA's website www.sepa.org.uk
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aj2007
Unregistered User
Jul 9, 20:57
Report commentGreat Job by Council boys and girls on sat in ELC, great response and from what I have been told much more proactive than our neighbour councils. Always sad that someone gets flooded and I had family that were effect in Edinburgh that rang council for help and told to contact the Fire brigade at least ELC tried to do something positive.
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Robert McNeill
Unregistered User
Jul 10, 08:04
Report commentI heard Cllr Stu was down to give his support . I hope he helped with the Sandbags.
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droont rat
Unregistered User
Jul 10, 17:34
Report commentDoes anyone know what the flood prevention measures are in musselburgh? Where are they deployed?
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aj2007
Unregistered User
Jul 10, 18:11
Report commentI don’t believe there are any major flood prevention measures in place as such. The protection of ones property is the responsibility of the householder, but as the Esk in Musselburgh is a river that can be prone to cause flooding the Council take reasonable steps to help protect some properties which are most at risk. These are mainly along Esk side West and East. This involves the deployment of sandbags if the river is to burst its banks. If money and safety was no object they should dredge The Esk in Musselburgh and the Tyne in Haddington which would really make a big difference to reduce flooding.
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Local Lass
Unregistered User
Jul 12, 16:02
Report commentFlood plans are with East lothian council. Sepa watch the levels of the rivers and when it reaches a certain level the council then step in with measures to help prevent flooding. Home owners need to take steps to protect their property. The Esk was dredged a few years ago and when the water is at its lowest you can see that the bottom of the river does not need to be cleared. The amount of rain we have had and also a high tide which comes up to the store bridge made the river burst its banks.
East Lothian council staff work round the clock to help those most in need and must be congratulated for their sterling work.
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Red Thumb
Unregistered User
Jul 13, 16:37
Report commentits a pity the council didn't clean out the road side drains......
then a lot of the road side flooging would never happen......
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red thumb
Unregistered User
Jul 14, 10:48
Report commentits a pity the council didn't clean out the road side drains......
then a lot of the road side flooding would never happen......
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