More than three centimetres of rain fell between 9 a.m. on Tuesday and 6 a.m. on Wednesday, exacerbating the problems already caused by the deluge of the preceding weekend.

The Howe of Fife bore the brunt of the weather, with more than 20 homes in and around Freuchie under up to five feet of floodwater, and many roads — including sections of the A92 — closed as mud and water cascaded off the fields.

Local farmers could only watch in despair as potato crops turned to mush underfoot, and harvesting operations were made almost impossible as the already-saturated fields turned into quagmires.

Now questions are being asked about whether more could have been done to prevent the devastation.

Councillor Andrew Arbuckle, one of three Howe of Fife councillors and chair of north east Fife area committee, suggested that more consideration should be given by Fife Council in terms of clearing out drains and ditches.

He said he would be calling for a report by the local authority and emergency services into the week's events.

"There is no doubt that we are getting more instances of so-called 'once in a lifetime' flooding events, and we should be looking at whether we should change our practices," said Councillor Arbuckle.

"During the 20 years I have been a councillor we have reduced our winter maintenance budget considerably simply because there isn't the same amount of snow, so perhaps we should be looking at different priorities."

Fife Council, together with the Kingdom's emergency services, were still clearing up the damage left by last weekend's torrential rain when the next downpour struck, depositing more water in the space of 36 hours than would normally be seen in a month.

Tansportation service official Harry Byers said: "We have been working closely with the police and fire service, distributing sandbags and making every effort to minimise disruption due to road closures and landslides.

"The ground was already saturated after the weekend's flooding, and the drains just weren't able to cope with the sheer volume of water."

Mike Thorpe, structural services team leader for Fife Council, said: "The council has good planning processes in place to help deal with flooding.

"Emergency response teams from roads and street lighting were deployed immediately with assistance from Fife Fire and Rescue service.

"In Fife, our inland rivers are smaller so we do not get flooding on such a large scale as witnessed in England, but even a few houses being flooded has the same devastating effect on those directly involved.

"The Fife Flood Report is in place for rivers to ensure watercourses are maintained and defences put in place where needed. Significant investment is being made across Fife.

"We will continue to be vigilant and work with SEPA, the Scottish government and communities to try to ensure that even rare severe events don't impact on the people of Fife."



Among the most severely affected areas was Cupar, where the Cart Haugh park was turned into a lake and residents in Burnside had to rescued from their homes, with several businesses — including the Cupar Arms Hotel — flooded.

The first calls for help came in the early hours of Wednesday morning — and ironically the town was bathed in warm sunshine when firefighters eventually left the scene six hours after pumping operations started.

By that time, however, the floods had had a knock-on effect in the form of lengthy tailbacks on all roads leading into the town centre.

In St Andrews, properties around the Kinness Burn appeared to have escaped the worst of Tuesday night's trouble with bowlers out on St Andrews Bowling Club's green in Kinnessburn Road, as usual on Wednesday afternoon.

However, following earlier downpours, on Saturday evening, staff in sandwich shop, Subway, in Market Street, had to throw out a great deal of stock after around a foot of water breached the building.

A number of other shops in the centre of the town were also affected.

In Falkland, volunteers faced a race against time to restore the village to its former glory in time for the arrival today (Friday) of the judges in a prestigious floral competition.

Their carefully-tended displays — which they hoped would earn them gold in the large village category of the Britain in Bloom awards — were flattened in the deluge, which also left the streets of the picturesque village strewn with mud and debris.

Falkland in Bloom secretary Bert Allan said that the volunteers were disappointed, but hoped the judges would be sympathetic.

Meanwhile, a change in wind direction means better news on the weather front, according to the Met Office at RAF Leuchars.

A spokesman said that things are expected to warm up tomorrow (Saturday) and that no more heavy rain was predicted — at least not yet.

He said: "There is a risk of showers at the weekend, with more persistent rain next week.

"There is a lot of low pressure around for the start of next week and still no sign of a summer."