The final cost of the emergency response to Storm Frank in Angus has been tallied at £1.4 million, it has emerged.
Three days of torrential rainfall and flooding wracked the roads network, left homes under water and swamped Angus Council with more than 2,500 calls from panicked residents on December 30 and January 6 and 7.
Community councillors will be asked to note how much the local authority has shelled out for response, cleanup and repair at a meeting in Forfar on Tuesday.
And they are expected to ask for direct aid from the Scottish Government as well as the Bellwin scheme, a UK Government relief fund activated by Holyrood on December 31.
At the height of the storms some 30 routes were closed and another 20 were only passable with care or by 4×4 vehicles.
At times the A90 was closed in both directions, the A92 was closed north of Montrose and south of Arbroath, the A94 from Perthshire was closed on safety grounds, along with a number of minor roads.
The roads around Eassie, Newtyle and Inchbare caused concerns for the transport of school children, which required police assistance, and the road collapsed completely at Justinhaugh.
Ian Cochrane, the council’s head of technical and property services, said that the county’s roads have yet to recover fully.
He adds: “The roads infrastructure was impacted during the event as parts of the network became inaccessible, suffered damage due to the water impact and continues to suffer damage from the saturation of the road structure.”
Mr Cochrane added that Brechin was hardest hit when the South Esk overtopped the unfinished flood defences on December 30.
“There are some 120 other sites where road repairs, drainage repairs or flood issues are now being processed,” he said.
“There were also repairs to 50 properties consisting of leaks, wind damage and drainage issues.”
Councillor Mairi Evans said she believed the system of flood alleviation being built along River Street scheduled for completion in the spring will protect the people of Brechin in future.
She said: “This is the worst flooding we’ve had since 1918 and the fact we’ve had four properties flooded, instead of the thousands that could have been affected, is a massive achievement.
“If you look at what could have been if we hadn’t had those defences in place I think we’ve been saved from an absolute catastrophe.”