Flood barriers to be deployed at the Hope

Flood barriers to be deployed at St Margarets Hope

Early flood forecasting from SEPA indicates a risk of coastal flooding at St Margarets Hope tomorrow, Thursday 28 September, due to a combination of current high tide levels and storm surges associated with low pressure weather systems.

Based on this data we’re erring on the side of caution and rolling out the floodstops for their annual pre-winter test tomorrow, and keeping an eye on other trouble spots across Orkney.

We’d ask folk to remove any parked cars from the Cromarty Slip/Front Road area, by 9am tomorrow (Thursday) as we plan to start putting up the defences by midday. We’ll also have a limited number of sandbags available in the vicinity of the flood defences.

There is a high possibility that the flood barriers at the Hope could remain in place until Sunday when conditions are expected to ease.

However we will be monitoring the situation and will remove them as soon as conditions suggest it is safe to do so.

You can sign up to receive live flood alerts and warnings from SEPA, and view current flood advisories here: https://floodline.sepa.org.uk/floodupdates/

Remember, property owners are responsible for protecting their properties from flooding. You can find out more about steps to improve the flood resilience of your property and preventing flood damage on our Flooding Information page.