An Edinburgh pensioner told how she has been trapped in a hotel room and left with no possessions after being evacuated from her home by the fire service during heavy flooding.
Catherine Nanton said officers at Muirhouse Housing Association had kept her and an elderly neighbour in the dark after the pair were moved to emergency accommodation when heavy rainfall caused a burst sewage drain to flow into her home.
The 69-year-old described the condition of her house as a ‘horror movie,’ leaving her unable to make it out the door beyond the steady stream of water and waste.
It forced fire crews to perform a rescue and the neighbours to be hastily booked in for a temporary stay at a hotel three miles away by housing chiefs for the third time due to flood-related issues.
However, Catherine said she has now been ‘abandoned’ for more than a week with no indication of if and when she will be able to return to the property - where she has lived for more than 15 years.
She accused the housing association of dragging their heels over a timeframe for the repairs, adding they have been given little in the way of reparations in the meantime.
“We’ve been in the hotel from a week past Sunday, it’s the third time we’ve had to be moved to a hotel because of a flood,” she said.
“There has been a burst drain from outside from the heavy rain, it came so quick. We were stuck in the house for three hours before we could get in contact with the fire brigade.
“But they don’t seem to be doing anything to fix our carpet so we can get back home, they’ve not deemed it serious enough.”
She added: “We don’t have any money to spend, we don’t have any of our own things and we’ve barely eaten a healthy meal since we’ve been here.”
According to the Met Office, 40.6mm of rain was recorded at the Capital’s Botanic Gardens in one hour during the storm on July 4 - equivalent to around two-thirds of the monthly expected rainfall.
Images from Catherine's home on Muirhouse Avenue North show the entrance saturated with water despite efforts to block its path with sandbags.
Catherine said she waited in the house for almost three hours before a friend was able to contact fire crews to help her outside.
Housing Association officers later organised for a hotel stay, but she has been left "at her wits' end" by the extended period away from home.
She said: "The carpets are all ruined, everything was just a mess.
"It was like a scene out of a horror movie, there was muck everywhere. It was upsetting to see it like that.
"I've had to cancel everything, my Sky tv, it has all had to be stopped and we've had no compensation.
“I’m nearly 70, my neighbour is 82, we just want to get out of our hotel and back into our homes.
“We have no idea how long we’re going to be here. The housing association won’t tell us anything, there is no timeline."
Muirhouse Housing Association declined to comment when approached by Edinburgh Live.
