Some say it could be months before their homes are habitable again.

Residents in Freuchie Mill, one of the worst affected areas, were this week assessing the damage to their homes, which in some cases is estimated at as much as £40,000.

In addition, a total of over £120,000 worth of cars were written off after being engulfed by raging flood waters on the road outside.

John Thomson, who faces having to re-build the entire ground floor of his home at 15 Freuchie Mill, said that he believed the damage could have been much less severe had the drain behind the development been properly maintained by Kingdom Housing Association.

He said: "Kingdom Housing were negligent by not keeping the drain clean.
"As a result, it was blocked that night and while I'm not saying the flood wouldn't have happened at all, it certainly wouldn't have been so bad."

Mr Thomson (39) also criticised Fife Council, who he claimed had kept a low profile since the flooding.

He said that apart from finding people temporary accommodation in the immediate aftermath of the event, they had done little to help in the clean-up operation.

"Part of the development is private housing and part owned by Kingdom, and each seems to be putting the responsibility on the other," he said.

"At the end of the day, we all pay our council tax, but they haven't even sent out a street cleaner.

"The mud is so bad that it's become an environmental health issue."

Cleansing officer Paul McPherson explained that the very bad weather had resulted in 48 roads being closed throughout the Kingdom, and it had been difficult to get to every area as quickly as the council would have liked.

However, a large cleansing machine had been sent out to Freuchie and it was hoped that all the mud on the road would be cleared by Wednesday afternoon.

Kingdom Housing Association's chief executive Alan McGuckin said that investigations were still ongoing, but thought it very unlikely that the drain, blocked or otherwise, would have been a factor in the resulting damage.

Mr McGuckin added that Kingdom Housing had made arrangements for the affected tenants in Freuchie Mill to move into temporary accommodation until repairs could be carried out.