Floods and landslides after a day of deluge
Adam Civico
Roads were partially blocked and damage was caused due to the persistent heavy rain which fell over Shetland yesterday.
Landslides were caused near Weisdale leading to the partial blockage of the A971 but parts of the South Mainland appeared to bear the brunt of the problems.
Near Levenwick there was a partial blockage on the A970 between the Bigton and Levenwick junction and there was “deep flooding” on the A970 at Cunningsburgh and Sandwick.
The footbridge over the Hoswick burn (Fred’s Brig) was washed away again between 5pm and 6pm on Saturday. The adjacent waste water connection could not be seen under the torrent, according to witness Robin Barclay.
He said on Saturday night: “The Hoswick road bridge was not coping with water rising faster on the upstream side than could spill through the three pipes (obviously inadequate to cope with the flow), so the bridge was acting as a dam.
“This wasn’t helped by the arrival of at least one telephone pole from upstream, which swung sideways and jammed. I hope it is still there [Sunday] morning as the rain hasn’t eased yet.”
It is the second time this year the bridge has been dislodged. In January the bridge was blown from its base by gales and/or waves.
In yesterday’s deluge there was a landslide at Vatster in Bigton which narrowly missed houses. Elsewhere the road was blocked at Dales Lee.
;The situation is similar to that of two years ago when landslides hit parts of the Central Mainland including Uradale.
More to follow.
Sheenagh Burns
Maybe now we’ll see someone come around and dig out the ditches! It certainly hasn’t been done around Hoswick this year, despite the floods of the past; they came round last week and cut the grass, but that just went into the ditches and filled them up more.
Robin Barclay
Digging out the ditches wouldn’t have made any difference yesterday – it would have all run into the burn anyway.
Robin Barclay
That looks like Vatster, along the road to Maywick, not Maywick.
Johan Adamson
What did happen to drainage and ditching tho? It used to happen all the time?
Jim Nicolson
Robin Barclay is right – most ditches dug or undug would not have coped with the volume of water that fell on saturday. I have seen at various districts in Shetland this year council workmen ditching!
Donna Simpson
Perhaps communities will need to go back to the good old days and do things themselves. Shovels are pretty cheap at Hays.
Iris Sandison
‘Perhaps communities will need to go back to the good old days and do things themselves. Shovels are pretty cheap at Hays.’
Would you care to expand on that?