TORRENTIAL rain lashed much of the UK yesterday leaving two people dead and dozens of homes flooded.
A five-year-old girl was swept half a mile to her death after falling into a rain-swollen river as she played with her dogs on the north Cornwall coast.
In south London, a man was crushed to death when a tree fell on a van
A fullscale clean-
up operation was under way in Fife after properties in Cupar and Freuchie were swamped with up to five feet of floodwater.
A wheelchair-bound resident was evacuated from a property in Burnside.
In North Lanarkshire, three people were rescued after water engulfed their cars. Firefighters used a boat to rescue a woman and a girl from a flooded vehicle at Airdrie railway station. They also waded out to an elderly woman whose car became stuck in deep water in the town's Cairn Hill Road.
A road outside Victoria Park, Jordanhill, Glasgow, was also flooded.
Emergency services worked to clear water from homes and businesses as Fife was hit with heavy rainfall for the second time in a week.
According to meteorologists, almost half a month's rainfall fell in one night. A total of 31mm of rain was recorded at RAF Leuchars through the night, compared with 13mm in Edinburgh and the Borders.
Fife Fire and Rescue Services called out to 68 incidents. The rain let up as the day went on, allowing sandbags to be distributed and the job of tidying up to begin.
Freuchie Mill, on the edge of the Freuchie, in central Fife, was among the worst-hit areas.
Local resident Ross Robertson, 28, described the scene around him as one of devastation.
He said: "I would say there are about 20 properties that have been flooded in this immediate area. The water is up to some resident's letter boxes. One of my neighbours who had been away over night was in tears after she found her house flooded.
"Everyone who parked in the car park in front of the flats has had their car written off by the flood waters."
Robert Balfour, a farmer from Freuchie, described the weather as "crazy". He said: "We need monsoon ditches like they have in the tropics, because that's what the rain's been like.
"We've got flooding on the farm itself, with houses potentially about to be flooded, so we're taking action there immediately before we move on to try and clear some of the ditches."
Last night, Patrick Laughlin, chairman of Freuchie Community Council, said that all of those affected by the floods were being assisted. "We had almost all of the 15 affected households with us this evening at the local school. Our first priority was to make sure that everyone was taken care of and had somewhere to stay," he said.
"Everyone was taking it very well considering the situation, but once they recover, in the next few days people are going to be asking why this happened, and how it can be prevented from being repeated."
Mr Laughlin said a major incident had been narrowly avoided. "We were ten to 15 minutes away from a much bigger disaster. Had the rain not stopped, we would have been looking at hundreds of houses being flooded."
Fife Council said St Monans Library was closed due to the severe weather. Several roads, including the B969 in North Glenrothes and the A915 Upper Largo to Largoward route, were also shut temporarily, causing problems for the area's commuters.
Over the weekend north-east Fife was hit by heavy rainfall with homes and business in Falkland, Kirkcaldy, Oakley, Rosyth and St Andrews taking the brunt.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency said it was monitoring river levels and coastal conditions across the area to assess the likelihood of further flooding. It warned that the already saturated ground conditions made disruption more likely.
In Cornwall, coastguards, helicopters and the RNLI had scoured a swollen river for a girl, from Holsworthy, Devon, who had being walking with her family when she fell into the water.
She was pulled from the river just before 2:30pm but later died at hospital in Plymouth.
In south London, three men were in the vehicle near Clapham Common when the tree fell on them, killing one. He had not been named last night.
Another man suffered back injuries and the third hurt his arm. They were being treated in hospital but their injuries are not thought to be life- threatening.
The full article contains 756 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
