Rita Campbell – web copy
Heavy rain is hitting the Highlands today with flood warnings in place across the area.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has issued flood warnings for Caithness and Sutherland, Easter Ross and the Great Glen, and flood alerts for Findhorn, Nairn, Moray and Speyside and Orkney and Shetland.
A flood warning means that flooding is expected and immediate action is required, while a flood alert warns the public that flooding is possible and they should be prepared.
The Churchill Barriers causeways in Orkney were closed.
The Met Office has issued a yellow rain warning for the north eastern quarter of Scotland which remains in place until midnight.
Dan Williams, spokesman for the Met Office, said: “We have a rain warning in place which covers Aberdeenshire into Moray, further across to the west up into the eastern quarter of Scotland.
“There has been a fair bit of rain up there today throughout this morning. It will continue in parts through to this evening, before it starts to clear off in the early morning.
“It is a fairly prolonged period of rain, about 1.2ins of rain could fall over the time period from 6am today until midnight, with 2ins possible in high areas.
“The rain will start to dry out as we go into the early part of tomorrow morning. It moves into the far north western areas for tomorrow, but it should be a dry day tomorrow overall.”
More than 1,600 homes across Orkney were hit by a power outage today.
The areas affected from around 7am included Westray, Papa Westray, Rousay, Egilsay, Wyre and Evie.
Engineers were able to restore power at about 8.20am by rerouting through unaffected parts of the network. They are investigating the exact nature of the fault.
A spokesman for Scottish and Southern Energy apologised for any inconvenience.