Council bosses and business leaders have hailed the success of Elgin’s partially-built flood alleviation scheme, saying it helped to prevent “a full-scale catastrophe” during this week’s storms.
Analysis of flow volumes in the River Lossie has confirmed the town would have faced damage on a level at least as severe as in 1997, 2002 and 2009.
However, the £86million project, which is due for completion early next year, took most of the impact of the swollen waters, leaving residents and businesses in the town largely unaffected.
Glen Moray Distillery manager Graham Coull said he was certain production would have been disrupted if the flood defences had not been in place.
Mr Coull, 45, said: “We were very happy with the outcome.
“Looking at the water level, I’m more than certain that we would have been flooded.
“The back of production is quite low-lying and most of the warehouses would have been affected.
“If we had lost the casks we could have been talking about a six-figure-sum.”
Glen Moray produces more than 30,000 whiskey casks a year and two new warehouses, capable of housing an additional 46,000 casks, have just been completed.
Mr Coull said the success of the flood alleviation scheme had given the distillery the confidence to commit to further expansion on Elgin’s western outskirts.
He added: “We can only do that with a safe place to build and we now have that.”
The Johnstons of Elgin production facility and shop have been affected by flooding in the past, but bosses there were also full of praise for the new scheme.
A spokesman for the cashmere specialists said: “We were able to maintain production throughout the day and our retail operations were able to resume trading as normal after losing only one day.
“We are particularly happy to see that homes at risk in our community, including those of many of our team, managed to escape what could have been a devastating event.
“We look forward to the completion of the flood alleviation scheme and the increased peace of mind it will bring to the whole community.”
Moray Council leader Allan Wright said: “I have the greatest sympathy for those households that did suffer flooding as a result of conditions on Monday, but the flood schemes undoubtedly averted a full-scale catastrophe.
“Since 1997 successive floods in Moray have caused damage costing many tens of millions of pounds and that quite staggering figure would have risen even further this week without the partially completed flood schemes in Elgin and Forres.”