Flood-hit Perth residents are demanding a formal inquiry after their homes were swamped with water, sewage and even dead rats.
People living on the edge of the city’s South Inch were among the worst hit by last week’s flash floods.
They are questioning why one of four flood gates – installed as part of £25m of defences in 2001 – was left open at the height of the storm, causing water from nearby Craigie Burn to overflow and turn parts of Scott Street, Marshall Place and Nelson Street into rivers of dirty brown water.
The defence system was put in place after catastrophic flooding in 1999, and appeared to be working well until January 2016 when a pumping station on South Inch failed and left most of Marshall Place under water.
It was hoped that after that incident, measures had been put in place to avoid a repeat.
But last week – four-and-a-half years on – the area was hit by two waves of flooding in a matter of hours.
Exceptional downpours in the early hours of Wednesday led to rainwater seeping into homes along Marshall Place. By 4.30am, many residents were using pumps to bail out their properties.
Resident Felicity Graham said: “By 3.45am, Marshall Place was underwater and the pavement covered.
“Parts of the pedestrian crossing works were floating away down the street. I stopped bailing out at between 4am and 4.30am, when the flooding had eased.”
But about an hour later, residents saw water of a “rich brown colour” pouring off South Inch, and levels in nearby homes began to rise again.
“Our back garden was full of water,” said Felicity. “The drains in the garden were overwhelmed and contaminated drainwater was now at my back door.
“I bailed buckets out of the hall to the dry lane at the back, but though we didn’t have much water in the hall, it just didn’t seem to go down.”
Marshall Place resident Jane Rennie added: “By 5am, the water had risen to beyond the original level due, not only to the additional rainfall, but because the drain was backing up, spewing a fountain of contaminated foul waste-water into our walled patio.”
She said: “The only way for me to exit the rear of the house, to start the pump, was to climb out a window.
“The water level in Marshall Place had also started to subside by 3.30am, but by 5.30am it was above the original flood level and had backed up into our front garden leaving solid waste and two dead rats.”
Residents now want a review of municipal drains, which appeared to become overwhelmed in a short space of time.
They also say there was little support from Perth and Kinross Council until after the worst of the flood, and have asked why only three of four flood gates were shut.
Perth City Centre councillor Eric Drysdale (SNP) said he found it “concerning and disturbing” to see first hand the damage caused after Wednesday’s flooding. He was told that residents were “largely left to fend for themselves.”
He said: “That’s not acceptable. We have to get to the bottom of this and learn lessons around the Perth and Kinross Council emergency response. We also need to understand why the flood defences were apparently not fully deployed until it was too late. Was it down to a late weather warning, or is it a resourcing issue or a lack of adequate preparedness?”
Mr Drysdale said he was assured by council Chief Executive Karen Reid that a review of the response was under way.
A council spokesman said crews worked “through the night” to protect homes and businesses.
“When it was discovered one of the flood gates had not been closed, two of our staff waded into chest-deep water to close it, just after 9am,” he said. “Our high capacity pump was also despatched to Marshall Place.”
The council said officers remained on site until 1pm, when water levels dropped enough to re-open the street.
“A review is currently under way, with the council and Scottish Water working together to look at our response and what lessons can be learned for future incidents,” he said. “Our current priority is to investigate the extent of flooding and why it happened.”
