A Garioch man who has just moved back into his flood-hit home – almost a year after it was ravaged by Storm Frank – has said the property “doesn’t feel the same”.
Bob Neilson, a resident of Davidson Park in Port Elphinstone, only returned home at the start of December and added the floods had ruined what would have been the first year of his retirement with his wife.
The father-of-two lost some £70,000 worth of possessions during Storm Frank.
Mr Neilson, 64, said: “It’s nice to be back, because we were living out in Skene. It is our own house but not our own house. It just doesn’t feel the same.”
The council is currently rebuilding the Davidson Park bund at Port Elphinstone, which gave way when the River Don burst its banks during last winter’s deluge.
It came after locals campaigned for the defence to be reinstated to give them peace of mind.
Mr Neilson added: “I feel a bit of security, but it is always going to be in the back of your mind whenever you get rain or steady rain.
“I think it will be a one-off in our lifetime. You are absolutely powerless to do anything about it, there is nothing we can do to change the weather, that is how we felt on the 7th of January.
“My wife retired this year and I am more or less retired, we bought a motor home with a retirement plan, but every time we went away, we had to come back. It would have been our very first year of retirement.”
