EDIT 20th Oct 12:00 – the latest guidance from Aberdeenshire Council regarding Storm Babet and its aftermath…
Our dedicated Storm Babet page has been updated
https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/communities-and-events/safety-and-emergencies/storm-babet/
Key updates:
We still have a Met Office Red Warning for rain in parts of South Aberdeenshire until around 12noon today
There is still an Amber Warning For significant rainfall across much of Aberdeenshire until around 6pm today.
Remember there are also still Yellow Warnings for rain and strong easterly winds across the whole of the region which will continue throughout today and tomorrow, with further significant rainfall anticipated on Saturday with continued high winds which could bring further impacts locally.
Safety
• Do not travel unless it is absolutely essential
• Do not visit stormy, wintery seas and cliff edges
• Do not venture near fast-flowing rivers or flooded areas – and stay away from closed bridges/roads
• Remember – road closures are put in place for your safety and the safety of operatives who may be undertaking works – do not drive through them
Resilience
We’re now hitting peak river levels for the rivers Dee and Don and there will be high levels and strong flows over the coming hours. Our rest centres remain open today (Fri) and any residents impacted by flooding can attend at the following venues:
Inverurie Community Campus
Kemnay Village Hall
Kintore Village Hall
Rest centres in Stonehaven Community Centre and at Mearns Campus in Laurencekirk will also remain open today.
SSEN have reported around 1,500 households still impacted by power cuts and engineers are on location dealing with these outages this morning. They’ve brought in welfare vans to the following locations:
• Sunnyside Avenue, Drumoak
• Stonehaven Community Centre, Bath Street
• Aberlour Parish Church, Victoria Terrace
• Grampian Transport Museum, Alford
If your home is under threat of flooding, we would encourage you in the first instance to seek temporary accommodation wherever possible with family or friends where you will be comfortable or at a hotel if your home insurance covers temporary accommodation.
Rest centres provide basic, communal accommodation for residents and may be crowded.
Last night officers from Police Scotland carried out a warn and inform of households potentially at risk – if you have to evacuate your property owing to flooding please remember to turn off the electricity and water supply at the main switch (be sure you know where these are located) and take your grab bag with you.
More information here: https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/…/planning-for…/
Health and Social Care
If you have a healthcare appointment, which has not already been cancelled, please consider re-scheduling. Many of our GP practices are running an emergency only service due to the conditions.
Schools
All school sites for let bookings will remain closed across Aberdeenshire on Saturday and Sunday due to the ongoing impact of the extreme weather. In the interests of safety, planned let sessions have been cancelled for these days.
Live Life Aberdeenshire
All venues will remain closed today and tomorrow (Sat).
Waste
All depots have their routes out with the exception Stonehaven as we are still in a Red Warning. Please note there will be localised disruption and some bins may not be collected.
We are aiming to catch up on today’s cancelled Stonehaven collections on Monday as follows – St Cyrus and Marykirk refuse collections; Stonehaven and Banchory Devenick paper and cardboard. We will prioritise the refuse collections but will aim to collect it all if possible.
All household recycling centres remain closed today.
Roads
Please do not attend any of our Roads depots or other facilities for sandbags as our stocks are now depleted and won’t be replenished – our crews are now focused on providing direct support within our communities.
We are aware of fallen trees impacting some routes and our teams are reacting to clear these as quickly as possible. To report fallen trees on the roads network call 03456 081205 (during office hours). Out of hours please call Police Scotland on 101.
We continue to carry out gully-clearing across the region.
Further road and bridges closures will be highlighted on our online map but these will only show what we know at that point in time – there will undoubtedly be other closures across the network.
EDIT 19th Oct 19:35 – the latest guidance from Aberdeenshire Council regarding Storm Babet…
Our dedicated Storm Babet page has been updated
https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/…/safety…/storm-babet/
Key update:
In light of SEPA’s flood warnings for Inverurie, Kemnay and Kintore, rest centres are being stood up from 8.30pm tonight (Thurs) by ourselves and community resilience groups in each of these communities for residents impacted by flooding at the following venues:
Inverurie Community Campus
Kemnay Village Hall
Kintore Village Hall
Rest centres in Stonehaven Community Centre and at Mearns Campus in Laurencekirk will remain overnight and into tomorrow.
If your home is under threat of flooding, we would encourage you in the first instance to seek temporary accommodation wherever possible with family or friends where you will be comfortable or at a hotel if your home insurance covers temporary accommodation.
Rest centres provide basic, communal accommodation for residents and may be crowded.
If the police, council or other emergency services, ask you to leave your home for your own safety and that of others, turn off the electricity and water supply at the main switch (be sure you know where these are located) and take your grab bag with you.
Your Emergency “Grab Bag”
If you have to evacuate your home, it will make things a lot easier if you have prepared a ‘Grab Bag’ in advance containing a packing list to follow should you need to use it.
When putting together a “grab bag” you should include:
• Any medication that may be required for family members
• Glasses or contact lenses
• Essential keys including house and car
• Cash, credit and debit cards
• A change of clothing. Footwear and sleeping attire
• Washing, shaving and sanitary supplies
• Any special items for babies, children, elderly and disabled people
• Mobile phone and charger
More information here: https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/…/planning-for…/
EDIT 19th Oct 11:20 – the latest guidance from Aberdeenshire Council regarding Storm Babet…
Please find the link to our latest update on Storm Babet https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/storm-babet/
Key updates as follows:
With Storm Babet now upon us, we would again urge people not to travel today.
Please do not attend any of our Roads depots or other facilities for sandbags as our stocks are now depleted and won’t be replenished – our crews are now focused on providing direct support within our communities.
We’ve closed the C36 Bridge of Feugh and footbridge and the A92 Lower North Water Bridge until further notice so do not attempt to access.
Further road and bridges closures will be highlighted on our online map https://bit.ly/46LcOjE but these will only show what WE know at that point in time – there will undoubtedly be other closures across the network.
Please stay away from all riversides during the coming days as there is a real risk to public safety because of flooding and strong flow.
Also be aware of the danger of high breaking waves and surging waves bringing dangerous debris along our coastline and stay away from these areas.
All schools and other ECS buildings will be closed today and Friday, except where required as rest centres or to provide catering support. As a result, lets bookings and out of school clubs have been cancelled. Ellon household recycling centre is closed today due to high winds. There will likely be further closures during the day. Household waste collections are continuing but may be impacted as the weather worsens.
EDIT 18th Oct 22:00 – the latest guidance from Aberdeenshire Council regarding Storm Babet can be found here
https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/communities-and-events/safety-and-emergencies/storm-babet/
The Met Office have issued a Amber weather warning for rain this Thursday and Friday (19th & 20th Oct) which covers the community council area. Residents in the area whose properties are in flood prone areas are urged to take precautions now.
Given below is the text of the press release issued by Aberdeenshire Council earlier today (17th Oct) which gives a good overview of the situation and the resources available – remember though that the onus is on residents to protect their own property and not rely on help from the council.
With Storm Babet fast approaching Aberdeenshire with heavy rain and very strong winds gusting up to 70mph being forecast – now is the time for residents and businesses to get prepared and have protection in place for their properties.
The Met Office has updated its weather warning to AMBER from around 6am this Thursday until 6pm on Friday – with SEPA also updating their flood warning to AMBER.
There is real potential for heavy and prolonged rainfall – exacerbated by strong south-easterly winds – to affect large parts of Aberdeenshire including the threat of localised flooding through both coastal and river impacts – and communities must start to take precautionary action NOW.
The Met Office warning highlights that 70-100mm of rain will fall widely across the area, with some upland areas possibly seeing 150-200mm. That is an incredible amount of rain to fall within a 36 to 48hr period for this area.
Potential impacts include:
❗️Extensive flooding to homes and businesses is likely, which could lead to collapse or damage to buildings or structures
❗️There is a good chance that communities within flooded areas could be completely cut off, perhaps for several days
❗️Fast flowing or deep floodwater is likely, causing a danger to life
❗️Power and other essential services, such as gas, water and mobile phone service will probably be lost
❗️Road closures are likely, along with bus and train service delays and cancellations
❗️Dangerous driving conditions could occur because of spray and flooded roads
You can follow all our Storm Babet updates on our News Centre at https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/Apps/News/
Sandbags
In preparation, we have teams creating significant supplies of sandbags at our Roads Depots should residents require them – locations here https://bit.ly/AbshireSandbags
But please note – local sandbag stocks may run out and cannot necessarily be replaced.
While Aberdeenshire Council has an obligation to maintain roads and undertake certain emergency responses in the event of flooding, this does not extend to private property – residents and businesses should take steps now to protect their own property from flooding.
If you live in a known flooding area, please ensure you sign-up now for alerts from SEPA call the Floodline on 0345 9881188 or visit http://floodline.sepa.org.uk/floodupdates/
Gully-cleaning
Roads crews are currently undertaking gully-clearing in known flood-risk areas.
Roads/Trees
The severity of the winds is likely to have a significant impact on woodland, particularly in areas weakened by previous storms. While Roads and Landscape teams will respond to calls about fallen trees, if it is too dangerous – particularly under cover of darkness – we will close roads until it is safe to remove them.
Please remember, fallen, overhanging and hung-up trees represent a serious danger to safety and affected areas should be avoided at all times.
To report fallen trees on the roads network call 03456 081205 (during office hours).
Useful links
Flooding advice here https://floodlinescotland.org.uk/your-home/
Keep an eye on the forecast at https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?date=2023-10-19
To get all the latest Council updates including impacted waste collection services, facility closures etc, download the myaberdeenshire app at https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/my/mobile-app/
Handy phone numbers:
Power outages – via SSEN on 105
Non-urgent medical issues – via NHS on 111
Emergency council housing repairs – 03456 08 12 03
Emergency social care – 03456 08 12 06
Cluny, Midmar and Monymusk Community Council 
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