About 20 people were trapped in their flooded homes yesterday after a river burst its bank on the A835 at Loch Broom near Ullapool.
They were warned by fire and rescue officers to stay inside as water cascaded down a hill, sweeping away everything in its path, including a car and a garden shed.
The drama started when a motor home got stranded as its driver tried to negotiate a flooded stretch of the main Ullapool-Garve road.
The motorist had been attempting to follow a smaller camper van – which managed to get through – but ended up marooned when the engine cut out.
Witnesses at the scene said the occupants of the vans, who all appeared to know each other, were Italian nationals.
Traffic immediately backed up on both sides of the flood, which was rapidly getting worse as the water gushed over a dyke by the road side.
Firefighters, many wearing lifejackets, were joined at the scene by police officers and engineers, with a variety of vehicles, machinery and equipment, including a mechanical digger.
It was used to scoop debris from the raging waters, which engulfed a large area of the road and grass verge.
The fire and rescue service’s incident commander was station manager Alex McKinley, who is the brigade’s Inverness-based emergency planning officer.
He said: “We have fire crews working here, who have carried out one rescue already – the occupant of the camper van which has been caught in the flood, who was moved to safety.
“There are three properties affected, with a total of 20 people inside, and we have left them in their property just now as it is safer not to move them at this stage.
“We have a digger in operation to clear the blockage, which has been caused by debris, and re-channel the water, which normally flows through three channels, elsewhere.
“It usually goes beneath the road, but fast-flowing water has caused the situation which is causing it to go over the road instead.”
Many occupants from vehicles stuck in the traffic jam made their way to the edge of a cordoned-off area to watch the crews in action as they battled against the water, which poured down relentlessly.
Among them was Lewis Macaulay, from Stornoway, who was returning from a trip to Glasgow with two friends and had planned to catching the 10.45am ferry sailing from Ullapool.
He said: “We left Glasgow at 5am and we are now stuck, ironically only five miles away from the ferry, and this was the last hurdle.
“We have now been here two hours, have missed the ferry, and will probably go back to Inverness, and do not know when we will get back home.”
Also anxiously waiting in the queue was Adrian, who works for a car parts company in Inverness, and was scheduled to make deliveries to various garages.
“Although I have only been here half an hour, I have calls to every garage in Ullapool, and they will be waiting for their deliveries so they can get their customers’ cars fixed.”
By 1pm, the water was subsiding slightly, and the digger was able to lift rubble from the road itself, which still remained flooded.
Some sections of the roadside had been damaged, with one firefighter falling into a hole at one point, before being rescued himself by a colleague, while others using long metal rods continued to try to clear the blockage.