The personal cost of floods that swamped large areas of the north-east of Scotland was being felt on Tuesday.
Floods up to five feet deep caused chaos on the roads and damage to homes and businesses following Sunday's downpours.
Communities in Huntly, Aberdeenshire and the coastal town of Stonehaven bore the brunt of the damage.
Stonehaven resident Barry Brown was helpless to prevent water seeping up through his floor and into his home – ruining all his one-year-old son’s birthday presents.
Mr Brown said: “It’s ruined everything in the house, destroyed everything. So many memories…it’s just a disaster. We took the kids up to a neighbours – they were scared. The boat came for us at 10.30pm and took us out. It was terrifying for the kids.
“My son was one on Friday and all his presents were soaked with dirty water. We haven’t been able to salvage anything.
Mr Brown feels the local authority could have done more to prevent the flooding.
He said: “I went to them to get sand bags but no one responded. It was a delayed response. Everything was ruined by the time they got here. I do blame them because they could’ve done more for us.
“I could cry but I want to be strong for my family. That’s just part of being a dad I guess.”
However Aberdeenshire Council Chief Executive Colin Mackenzie said the authority did everything it could.
He said: “I can understand how people in very desperate situations can be critical of what’s happened. But at the end of the day we had over 150 of our staff out working and giving people sandbags. Every measure we could take was in place.
“There will be lessons to learn, you can’t have the severe weather conditions we’ve had and not learn from that so we will be looking back and looking to improve in the future.”
Elsewhere new Highland League outfit Turriff United are relying on their insurance company paying out after their ground was flooded by six feet deep water.
Club Secretary Michael Ewen says they expect the damage caused by the water to exceed £10,000 and after being forced to spend around £4,000 the last time the Haughs was flooded, are unable to cover the cost themselves.
Mr Ewen said: “We can’t afford it this time, we never claim from our insurance policy. But this time we’ll have to. We hope the insurance will pay out it’s the only way we’ll be able to afford this.
The club have already been given permission to play their matches away from home for the foreseeable future by the Highland League.
The club are attributing the persistent flooding to a burn that runs behind the ground which flooded its banks. United’s directors will be moving to have the burn blocked off to prevent any future floodings.
Weather forecasters were predicting that while rain was set to continue on Tuesday, it would be far lighter than what was seen over the weekend.
Video: Experts warn Stonehaven will take months to repair
