Storm Desmond: Corbridge facing more rain

The Met Office has forecast more rain over the next few days

Expected rain is unlikely to cause further flooding in Northumberland, the Environment Agency (EA) has said.

Floodwater has been pumped out of homes and businesses in Corbridge after the River Tyne reached record levels during Storm Desmond.

More than 70 homes were evacuated as the river rose to 19ft (5.79m) at the weekend.

Flood risk manager Phil Welton said the agency was "watching the situation closely".

"There's another weather system coming across on Wednesday night and then potentially at the weekend as well," he said.

"The weather we saw at the weekend really was exceptional - we saw a month and a half's rainfall in a day and a half.

"It was more than the defences in places like Corbridge could take.

"We're not expecting to see those levels of rainfall again over the coming days but we are watching the situation closely."

Six inches (150mm) of rain fell across Northumberland, devastating houses such as Keith and Gillian Linton's

The Met Office forecast further rain over the next few days.

Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service responded to 75 emergency calls over the weekend to deal with "dangerous" chimneys, roofs, hoarding signs, scaffolding, trees and collapsed walls.

Keith and Gillian Linton, from Corbridge, said floodwater in their home reached about 3ft (1m) higher than in previous years.

"Because we've been flooded before I've always kept my photographs upstairs," Mrs Linton said.

"It's at least six months [to repair the damage] because the houses don't dry, you've got to dry slowly, and then they take the plaster off usually 3ft (1m) above the watermark."

Trees have been moved from cars in Corbridge, along a row of houses flooded over the weekend

"They pull all the floorboards up, take the skirtings off, dig away all the plaster... then put the dehumidifiers on and then we just sit around and do nothing for a month," Mr Linton said.

Environment Secretary Liz Truss said she had "every sympathy" with people forced out of their homes just before Christmas.

"We're working with the insurance companies to make sure people can claim rapidly," she said.

"We're bringing forward the Bellwin scheme to help local authorities pay for those extreme weather conditions and we'll be announcing further schemes in due course."

Flood water was about 4ft deep at the Stanners in Corbridge