THREE Aberdeenshire villages are on flood alerts this morning after heavy rain battered Scotland over the weekend.
Despite the rain easing off, river levels are continuing to rise and the ground is saturated, increasing the risk.
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The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) still has 52 flood warnings in place across Scotland, including for the villages of Kintore, Ballater and Aboyne.
All Met Office yellow warnings have now been lifted but a further yellow warning for rain has been issued for parts of western Scotland for Tuesday.
Travel issues
ScotRail said it was expecting to run a full service across most of the network this morning including the central belt.
But service delivery manager David Simpson said routes from Stirling to Perth and from Perth to Inverness were still affected by floodwater.
The Stonehaven to Arbroath route is also awaiting the completion of safety inspections, he added.
Government action
Following a meeting of the Scottish Government’s Resilience Room on Sunday, Home Affairs Secretary Angela Constance said: “The rainfall we have seen over Scotland this weekend has been extreme, causing significant disruption -particularly in the west and north of the country.
“These impacts are ongoing, and I want to put on record my thanks to all the staff and volunteers responding across the country.
“The flooding risk remains a key concern over the next few hours and days, with extremely high river levels and saturated ground.”
She added: “Our multi-agency response teams stand ready and prepared to respond to any flooding incidents. Some local councils have also set up rest centres in their areas.
“The priority is now to restore normality as far as possible by Monday morning. I would, however, urge anyone planning to travel over the next few days to do so with caution.”
