Scotland has avoided the torrential rains that lashed other parts of the UK over the weekend, but forecasters have warned of more heavy rain to come.

They predicted that today's clear skies are likely to be the calm before another storm.

At least five people have died in weather-related incidents since Friday, with floods hitting the north-east of England and parts of Yorkshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

In Morpeth, Northumberland, the clean-up operation began after floods on Saturday put the town's High Street under 2ft of water, with more than 400 people needing to be evacuated.

Residents were plucked to safety by an RAF helicopter.

Trevor Watson, 56, whose cottage backs on to the River Wansbeck, which burst its banks, said it was the worst flooding he had experienced in 30 years of living there.

Pointing to his living room, where his possessions were caked in thick sludge, he said: "It's devastation, so we're not touching inside at the moment."

MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said that while rains eased off around the country yesterday, more storms were expected by tomorrow.

Forecaster Matt Dobson said: "It's been one of the largest storms of the summer. Tuesday will see another depression arriving, meaning heavy spells of rain across Northern Ireland, the north-east, Wales and southern Scotland."

Judy Evans, operations director for the British Red Cross, said emergency services in Morpeth had not been able to cope with the number of calls.

The Red Cross helped set up an evacuation centre and sent volunteers to help - and three people had to be airlifted to hospital because ambulances could not get to them.

"It is very difficult when your house is being flooded and you are quite elderly so people needed help readjusting to that situation," added Ms Evans. While there were no serious casualties overnight, three people had to be airlifted to hospital because ambulances could not get to them, she added.

Ruth Macfarlane, 61, who runs a bookshop adjacent to her home, said both properties were damaged.

"It was up over the worktops in the kitchen and the living room and the shop ... the damp is making all the books bend so it is going to be a mammoth loss," she said.

"Yesterday we were in business and today we are thinking of starting again, I suppose, like a lot of people."

A 17-year-old died on Friday when a 4x4 she was in plunged into floodwater in a remote area of forestry in Powys, mid-Wales.

Police said she was from the Thamesmead area of south London. Her family asked that her details were not released at this time.

On the same day, a man and a woman - named locally as Barry Rowe and Rebecca Hoynes - died when their vehicle collided with a tree in Plymouth.

The accident happened in Embankment Road, Plymouth, in heavy rain.

A 42-year-old Sheffield motorcyclist died when his bike hit a tree on the A66 near Scotch Corner.

On Saturday, a 27-year-old man died when a muddy trench he was working in collapsed at a building site in Stroud. The man, from Cheltenham, was declared dead at the scene.

North Yorkshire Police said yesterday that a motorcyclist was killed when he was in collision with a fire engine near the village of Wilton on the A170 between Scarborough and Pickering.

Earlier in the day, fire crews from North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service had been pumping out homes in the Pickering area after the local beck burst its banks.

Shadow floods minister Anne McIntosh, who will visit the area today, said: "I know this has been a weekend of worry for the people of Pickering as it has been for communities across Yorkshire who worry when the rain starts to fall.

"I want to see for myself how the town coped with the latest spell of heavy rain to cause problems.

"I remain very concerned about the lack of flood defences to protect the town."

Homes also needed to be pumped out in parts of Birmingham, and defences were deployed around the River Ouse in York.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency, which has seven severe flood warnings in place for the north-east, said: "With river levels being high already, we can expect more floods to hit."