Ross estate counts cost of 'massive' flood devastation
THE full scale of the widespread devastation left behind by a flash flood in a rural Ross-shire community has been revealed by the worst affected residents, who have never experienced anything quite like it.
The unprecedented sudden downpour that lashed Corriemoillie and Lochluichart on Friday afternoonevening closed two sections of a main road and the nearby railway, and also flooded a family home and destroyed its garden.
On the nearby Lochluichart Estate, hill tracks and roads, fences, septic tanks and driveways were washed away and damaged by landslips involving thousands of tonnes of displaced rocks.
Tracks on a nearby wind farm were also damaged by the exceptional rainfall which wreaked its havoc in just over an hour.
Work continued this week to repair the damage to the A832 road.
The house at Corriemoillie Farm, occupied by Kevin and Katrina Mackenzie and daughter Tiana, was the worst hit by the deluge, which engulfed their property in a matter of minutes.
Mrs Mackenzie and her daughter were unable to get outside after up to eight inches of water flooded through the back door, as torrents swept through their garden and driveway down on to the main road, washing it away.
Mrs Mackenzie told the Ross-shire Journal they were sitting outside on a lovely afternoon and within one hour the worst of the drama was over.
They managed to move their cars and shift some rugs and furniture, but very quickly two rivers flowed either side of their home and the force of the water coming in the back door meant sheherself and her daughter couldn’t get out.
They started bailing out with buckets and Mr Mackenzie used a pump to clear the worst of the water.
“There was nothing we could do, our house flooded and the road got washed away. T, the fire brigade had to walk in on a different route and by the time they came to us we had pumped it out ourselves, and we didn’t want to leave the house,” said Mrs Mackenzie.
“The whole of the downstairs of the house is in an upheaval and everything outside in the garden in washed away. I, it was destroyed really, probably in an hour.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, it was the speed of it, and we couldn’t believe the places the water was coming from.”
She said once it stopped raining the floods “went as quickly as they came”.
The family has continued living in their house which they spent a year renovating before they moved in 18 years ago.
“It is just all those years and the work that has gone into the house, and it was just gone so quickly. I, it was just so unexpected, it is not like we live somewhere that usually floods,” she said.
“It was such a boltblot out of the blue, the fact it was happening, it was such a shock.”
Vital road closed for emergency repairs
Glyn Robson, the estate manager at Lochluichart Estate, worked with a colleague using a machine on Friday to clear a single track through the silt on the main road at Lochluichart to allow a stream of held-up vehicles to finally get through.
He is now busy working to clear and repair the huge amount of damage on the estate.
“The damage is massive on roads, gardens, a driveway and septic tanks caused by thousands of tonnes of rocks and hundreds of tonnes of silt, and a thousand metres of stock and deer fencing has been taken out,” he said.
Mr Robson said he was waiting for the loss adjustor to come, but one who only dealt with claims of £100,000 had already told him the value of the damage was more than that.
“We had a flood about nine years ago and we had some damage then, but not on this scale. O, on Friday a section of the railway here was washed away and they were working on it all weekend,” he said.
There was minor a minor flood within one lodge, damage to the driveway at another lodge and a second driveway to a cottage was destroyed. Mr Robson estimated all the devastation happened within two hours.
EDF Energy Renewables which operates the Corriemoillie Wind Farm said some of its tracks had been eroded by the volume of water and it was working hard with a local contractor to fix it, while the wind farm continued to operate normally.
The main road was closed between Corriemoillie and Lochluichart from 6.30pm to noon the next day, after a 20-metre section of road had been washed away. A further mile up the road a landslip resulted in tonnes of debris being washed onto a 70-metre section.
Highland Council said both sections required resurfacing and the repairs were estimated to last until today.
Kenny Maclean, chairman of Garve and District Community Council, said: “Full credit to the emergency services and to the Highland Council for getting this vital road open as quickly as they did.”
