The worst of Bertha’s storms may have been and gone, but people in Moray are still wrestling with a huge influx of water with nowhere to go.
For Elgin resident Alan McKerron, Monday’s deluge brought the third major flood he has had to deal with in 17 years.
However, it was not the River Lossie bursting its banks that continued to concern Mr McKerron and his Victoria Crescent neighbours yesterday, as was the case in 1997 and 2002.
It was the dirty water build-up in the drains after almost two months worth of rain fell in just 24 hours.
The seventy-nine-year-old said: “You get the trials and tribulations of life, don’t you?
“I feel really sorry for those old men having to deal with all this.
“We had three pumps going the whole day keeping the water down, and I was beginning to doubt the flood-works that they have done.
“But, there’s no doubt the flood prevention scheme slowed the water down.
“It’s the drainage that is obviously not capable of carrying that amount of water.”
The retired plumber said the water running from the roads into the road gullies and then flowing into the drainage and sewage systems created a huge problem.
He added: “It’s like everything else.
“When you hear that there’s millions of pounds of work being done, you want it to be able to carry the water.
“But, try to stop something coming out of that drain with 10 feet of water building up, it’s just not happening.
“The council do all the talking about it, but they have the water engineers telling them what to do.
“The person able to say that you can guarantee you are going to make a system to cope with the worst that’s been thrown at it is a very brave man.
“I’m a great believer that against nature, you can never guarantee you’ll beat it.”
A spokesman for Scottish Water said: “Internal flooding as a result of heavy rainfall is one of the most distressing events that can happen to a householder.
“We are investigating reports of sewer flooding as a result of the massive rainfall in the last few days in Forres and Elgin.
“The complex nature of flooding, with many agencies responsible for different aspects of sewer and drainage systems in communities, means that a partnership approach is needed to tackle this serious problem.
“Scottish Water will work closely with SEPA and Moray Council to investigate this flooding event further.”
Elgin City North Councillor, Barry Jarvis, said: “A lot of folk out there are very relieved with the lack of flooding, but they are quite angry that they are still getting wet.
“There’s folk up in Victoria Crescent that still have sewage coming up from the drains, so there’s still work for the council to do to get the water board to deal with the drainage.”