Tonight, on my way home from work I had a good cry. I hadn’t seen my children all week and it looked like I wasn’t going to get home to see them. It had been a pretty emotional 24 hours.
On Thursday, my plane home didn’t leave Heathrow because of there being a hole in the runway at Aberdeen. So I was up ridiculously early on Friday and on the first flight up the road.
I followed facebook and twitter obsessively through Thursday evening, contacting the council and fellow parliamentarians and sharing updates, trying to make sure that residents throughout my constituency were kept aware of flood risks and precautions, and hoping that the Don would not make it into too many homes.
Aberdeen City Council sent out email updates throughout the night, which were so useful to me stuck in London and unable to see the situation on the ground.
This morning, I went to visit Donside Village and Seaton Park with Kevin Stewart (MSP for Aberdeen Central). Thankfully, the water ingress into actual homes was very rare in the city.
Seaton Park is a loch though. We popped in to visit Tenants First who have properties in both Kemnay and Port Elphinstone that were affected by floodwater. The staff there were working hard to ensure residents were given help and support, and plans were swinging into action to ensure the clear up and salvage operations could be undertaken as quickly as possible.
The devastation is unbelievable. Flooding takes weeks and months to clear, and causes problems way into the future with house prices and insurance premiums being drastically altered as a result. The response from both agencies and the community has been brilliant. Folk have pulled together, donating so much and helping out people they don’t know.