North East England under water

At its peak, Morpeth High Street was under 2ft (0.6m) of water.  Paul Hedley, of Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service, said: "It was a scene of utter devastation."  Mr Hedley added: "The feedback I've had from my personnel who were working here was it was just something which they couldn't actually comprehend when they saw the scale of the absolute devastation. And I have to say that it's testament to the tremendous dedication and commitment of, not just the fire and rescue service, but everybody who was connected to trying to mitigate the effects of this flood."

Morpeth does have river defences but they could not cope with the sheer volume of water.

"What we saw yesterday was a unique event - we recorded the heaviest levels we have ever recorded coming through Morpeth," said Toby Willison, Environment Agency regional director.  "We are working to improve the defences, but the events of the last 24 hours have been unprecedented."

Floods recovery minister John Healey will visit Morpeth tomorrow to see for himself the devastation caused by the weekend’s heavy rain.  He will meet personnel from the emergency services and other officials involved in the rescue effort and clean-up.

While in Northumberland, he will announce the Government will operate the Bellwin scheme, which provides emergency financial assistance from Government to Local Authorities to meet the costs of an emergency or disaster.

The minister will also meet local residents whose homes and businesses have been devastated by the weekend’s flooding.

He will discuss with them and the agencies who will help get the area back on its feet over the next couple of months what support they need from government.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said that of all the country, the North East had been worst-hit by flood warnings. She said: “The majority of the warnings are in the North East where they have got a serious amount of rain battering down on them.”

The death toll nationally for the weekend reached five last night. And an Environment Agency spokesman said: “The threat of flooding is likely to increase.”