First Minister Humza Yousaf has urged people in the north-east to comply with evacuation, following the extension of the red weather warning.
Flooding is expected to continue on Saturday as Storm Babet's impact continues to be felt, with some residents of Brechin already evacuated.
Three people have died since the storm first hit the UK on Wednesday, while a search continues in Aberdeenshire following a report of a man trapped in a vehicle in floodwater.
The Met Office said a rare red weather warning – which means a danger to life – for parts of Aberdeenshire and Angus in Scotland will now end at 6pm on Saturday.
The warning had previously been in place until midnight and is the second such red warning issued in the area since Thursday.
Mr Yousaf posted on X, formerly Twitter: “A red weather warning remains in place for Angus & parts of Aberdeenshire.
A Red Weather Warning remains in place for Angus & parts of Aberdeenshire. Please comply with the advice being given, particularly if you are asked to evacuate, it is for your own safety.
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 21, 2023
We continue to engage with local partners & emergency services to coordinate our response. https://t.co/k5KafCdU74
“Please comply with the advice being given, particularly if you are asked to evacuate, it is for your own safety.
“We continue to engage with local partners & emergency services to co-ordinate our response.”
It comes as transport and infrastructure continues to be affected by the storm.
Read More: 'Difficult day ahead': New flood warning as Storm Babet impact continues
Storm Babet has cut power from more than 33,000 customers in Scotland but the vast majority are now reconnected, energy firm Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said.
As of shortly after 10am, work continues to reconnect 1,100 properties north of the border.
Andy Smith, operations director at SSEN Distribution said: “We’re making good progress for our customers in response to this very severe storm.
“The impacts of high winds and flooding mean it’s a challenge to get to all faults quickly and safely. But we have brought in considerable extra operational capacity to respond to issues that today’s weather may bring, including teams from our contractors and network partners.
“We’re in touch with the most vulnerable people in our community, and we’re putting support on the ground where it’s needed the most.
“Our focus remains restoring power as quickly as possible, and limiting the duration that our customers will be without power; I would like to thank them for their patience.”
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 here