THE highest water levels in the past 30 years have caused havoc to
homes on the Loch Lomond island of Inchmurrin.
As torrential rain continued throughout yesterday local residents
battled to keep the rising waters of the loch from invading their homes.
Water board officials said the loch's level was standing at 31 ft --
five feet higher than normal and the highest recorded in recent years.
Dr Thomas Cowie, a 69-year-old retired GP, who lives on the island
with his wife, said his garden had been completely submerged. He was
worried that more rain overnight could bring flooding into his home.
There are 16 houses on the tiny island, which stands only a few
hundred feet from the mainland. Most of the homes are used as holiday
houses.
Dr Cowie said he had looked around the island and he reckoned that at
least two holiday houses were in danger because their foundations were
being eroded by the weather.
Mr Tom Scott, the island's 63-year-old owner, said that the rain,
coupled with the high winds of the weekend, had swept away the island's
jetties and that it was becoming extremely hazardous to use his tiny
boat which acts as a ferry for the local residents.
He said: ''This island used to be about 350 acres. Now it is down to
about 300 acres because of the erosion. I have lived here all my life
and I have never seen it like this before.''
Mr Scott blamed the flooding on a barrage dam built at Balloch between
the loch and the River Leven by the Central Scotland Water Development
Board in the early 1970s. He said the problems had begun when the dam
was built.
However, a senior official from the board explained that the dam was
only in operation during the summer and that, at present, the gates were
down completely. Indeed, because they had helped to dredge the area
around the River Leven, the water was flowing more effectively at
present.
The unprecedented high water levels on Loch Lomond are being put down
to a combination of storm-force winds, heavy rain, and melting snow from
the mountains.
One possible contributing factor, however, is that the North of
Scotland Hydro-Electric Board's generator in the connecting Loch Sloy
has been operating over the last few days, pouring water into Loch
Lomond. But a spokesman for the board said the water released by the
generating station was no more than would be released naturally. They
were aware of the abnormally high levels in Loch Lomond at present and
had decided to cut the generating operation by half for the next 36
hours.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article