The Met Office has issued an amber weather warning for rain which comes into effect at noon on Friday morning and runs until 6am on Saturday. This covers a large part of the central and eastern Scottish Borders, including Galashiels, Kelso, Lauder, Duns and Cockburnspath.
A wider area covering the whole of the Berwickshire and as far west as Peebles is also under a yellow weather warning for rain, which runs until midnight on Saturday night.
A yellow weather warning for wind also runs up the eastern half of the Borders, from noon on Friday to noon on Saturday.
Within the amber warning area up to 60mm of rain is expected widely, with up to 120mm possible on east-facing high ground over the course of the 18 hours. Strong easterly winds may exacerbate the impacts of the heavy rain.
Due to the persistent and at times heavy rain and already saturated ground, river and surface water flooding is likely, particularly within the amber warning area. Residents are urged to put in place property-level flood defences where they have these available.
The main risk of river flooding is currently expected to be associated with the Whiteadder, Blackadder, Leader and Eye Water. The Bowmont Water and potentially the Gala Water and Eddleston Water may also be impacted.
Due to the risk of wave overtopping in our coastal communities, flood barriers have been deployed in Eyemouth and will likely remain in place for several days.
All Scottish Borders Council’s sandbag stores are fully stocked to assist residents in affected areas.
A multi-agency control centre will operate throughout the amber warning period to manage any Council and partner responses as required.
Updates will be provided by the council through the free emergency messaging service SB Alert (sign up at www.sbalert.co.uk) and the council website (www.sbalert.co.uk).