Three businesses were flooded on Tuesday evening when the Seagate area of Dundee was badly hit by a torrential downpour of rain.
Seagate Convenience Store, Marks & Spencer and Rancho Pancho on Commercial Street all shipped water into their premises. Firefighters were forced to pump water out of the convenience store’s basement, where the shop’s owner said around £10,000 worth of stock was ruined in the deluge.
Mr Imran Ghaffar said he was “gutted” after an initial look downstairs suggested around half of his supplies had been destroyed. As well as the upfront cost of losing the stock, Mr Ghaffar said he could lose trade as he runs out of basics damaged by the water.
“We are trading normally at the moment but I’ve got to go down to the basement and see how much stock is damaged. If there is too much ruined we could run out of a lot of things,” he said.
“If the basement is completely damaged that’s going to affect trading and who is liable for that? I’m looking at around the £10,000 mark in terms of the stock I’ve lost.”
He added, “Both the gutters had burst and there was water gushing in but the stock in the front of the basement doesn’t seem to be too bad. If you had gone in there the water would have been touching your chin it was that deep.”
“It’s a big blow at this time of year and with things like the recession going on. The only consolation is not all the stock is gone. I think around half of it should be OK.”
Mr Ghaffar, who has had his shop for six years, also criticised Dundee City Council for failing to put preventative measures in place to stop the flooding.Blocked drains”I’m gutted. I thought the council had fixed this problem,” he said. “The Seagate always gets flooded when it’s high tide or there’s a lot of rain but the firefighters told me it’s not high tide, so this is just because of the rain and blocked drains.
“There had to be something more done we are paying our rates but if we are losing thousands of pounds in one go to flooding then what’s the point of paying? There must be something the council can do as it’s been going on for years.”
A spokesman for Rancho Pancho said there had been “no great drama” at the restaurant, with trade unaffected while staff used in-house pumps to get rid of around 10 centimetres of water that had gathered.
It is also understood Marks & Spencer avoided any serious damage.
The downpour took place for roughly an hour around 6pm to 7pm and some streets in the Seagate area were affected. Candle Lane experienced flooding, although no residential properties were damaged, while Gellatly Street was closed for a period as the water was pumped out from the convenience store.
Tayside Fire and Rescue’s station manager at Blackness Road Martin Tait said firefighters used one appliance to pump the water out of the convenience store’s basement.
He added, “I was coming down Dens Road earlier and the water was horrendous and I expected it to be horrendous here but I was pleasantly surprised.”