Moray Council has said its partially completed flood alleviation schemes in Elgin and Forres helped to save hundreds of homes and businesses from flooding earlier this week.

The local authority referred to analysis of flow volumes in both the River Lossie and River Findhorn and was able to confirm that severe damage would have occurred had the defence measures not been in place. As a result, only a small number of properties in the Elgin and Forres area were affected by floodwater, and most of the damage that occurred was due to the large volume of rainwater that fell over the weekend, meaning drainage systems were unable to cope.

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Allan Wright, Leader of Moray Council, commented: "The rain gauge at Torwinny on the upper reaches of the River Lossie recorded much more intense rainfall in a much shorter period of time than both November 2002 and September 2009 when Elgin suffered severe flooding and damage to property.

"In terms of peak water flow and water level in the River Lossie as it passes through Elgin, Monday's event was of a similar magnitude to September 2009 and yet not a single property within the compass of the flood scheme was affected, which is testament to the effectiveness of the work that has been carried out, even though the scheme is still only partially complete.

"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."

(JP/MH)