An emergency centre could be established in Perthshire’s biggest town after extreme flooding saw it cut off from the rest of the country.
For a few hours earlier this month, all main roads in and out of Blairgowrie disappeared under several feet of water as persistent downpours battered the region.
And transport giant Stagecoach was forced to suspend all services to and from the town.
Now plans are being drawn up to create a community resilience group of volunteers and identify a venue which could be transformed as a rescue centre.
Last week, The Courier revealed that a series of similar centres had been set up at towns and villages along the A9, primarily to offer help to motorists trapped in heavy snow.
The Blairgowrie contingency plan was raised by community council members.
Local councillor Caroline Shiers said: “When we originally spoke about this a few weeks back, we couldn’t really think of scenarios where Blairgowrie would be effectively cut off from the rest of the world.
“But lo and behold, it happened.”
She said: “It was only for a couple of hours, but you could see from people online that the anxiety levels were ratcheting up.
“I daresay that if it had been a real catastrophe, we would have done what happened in Alyth and simply opened the doors to somewhere and let people in. However, this is something we really need to start planning for.”
Perth and Kinross Council is now undertaking an audit of all damage caused during early January’s flooding.
The recent extreme weather will be the subject of in-depth analysis next month. Councillors will be asked if anything can be done to better prepare communities in the future.
Blairgowrie councillor Bob Ellis said: “We have heard in the past about flooding like this being a one-in-200 year event. What we are seeing is this can happen without warning at any time of the year.”