There were warnings of more flooding to come as huge parts of Britain were underwater after Storm Babet battered the country for a third day.
Scotland bore the brunt with a rare “danger to life” red alert for the second consecutive day for parts of Angus and Aberdeenshire.
The warning hampered the search for a motorist missing after rising waters were said to have trapped the man in his car in Marykirk early on Friday.
The storm has already claimed the lives of two in Scotland and one in Shropshire.
Residents from around 100 homes across Angus were rescued from their flooded homes by boats and canoes. Some in the village of Bridge of Dun near Montrose were airlifted out by helicopter.
Eight Scottish Professional Football League matches were postponed while train services were disrupted and roads closed because of flooding or fallen trees.
Among the areas also hit by Storm Babet is Derbyshire. Emergency crews rescued 20 people from a care home as cars were submerged in flood water.
And Labour MP Toby Perkins said 400 homes in his Chesterfield constituency were swamped.
It came as three danger-to-life severe flood warnings were issued along the River Derwent, including for parts of Derby, where it reached 11ft 6in high yesterday, compared to its normal height of 6ft 6in.
Charles Edwards, the city council’s emergency planning officer, said: “The city has never seen river levels this high before.”
More than 360 flood warnings – where less dangerous flooding is expected – were put in place around much of England. A severe flood warning around Llandrinio, where the Severn and Vyrnwy meet on the Welsh-English border, was also issued by Natural Resources Wales.
Ioan Williams told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast it could take a day for rainwater from upper catchment areas to reach flood plains
“We’ve heard of people being stranded in their cars,” he said.
The Met Office said the highest rainfall recorded on Friday was three inches in Sheffield.
The village of Catcliffe, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was one of many that found itself deluged as river levels rose.
Huntingdon racecourse in Cambridgeshire also fell victim to floods with the whole area turning into a lake as Alconbury Brook burst its banks. King’s Cross station in London was temporarily closed due to overcrowding as passengers learned trains had been cancelled. The severe weather brought a halt to many LNER services heading towards Scotland.
Power companies worked non-stop to reconnect the remaining 4,000 homes in England of the 100,000 who lost power.
In Scotland, there were 1,100 out of 33,000 affected by power cuts due to the storm which first hit late on Wednesday.
Babet also reached parts of northern Europe, claiming a further life when a female driver, 33, was killed by a falling tree on the German Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn on Friday afternoon. Denmark, southern Sweden and northern Germany saw widespread flooding and travel disruption.
The German city of Flensburg saw a once-in-a-century “extreme highwater” of over 3ft.
As the storm moved into the North Sea last night, most will enjoy drier and calmer conditions today. But there were still fears of further flooding to come as water makes its way into river systems. Further heavy rain is predicted for this week.
The Met Office said today it will be cloudier in the far north with rain and the possibility of heavy and thundery showers for southern coastal areas. But it will remain unsettled, with showers or longer spells of rain, some heavy at times.
On Friday parts of north east Scotland saw more than a month’s rain fall in less than 24 hours. A further four inches fell across the region yesterday.
Jacqui Semple from Angus Council, said: “We’re not out of the woods by a long shot. There’s still a lot of rain to come through and there is still a lot of water lying right across Angus. Lots of water in the upper catchments still have to come down into our rivers.”
Last night, the Environment Agency said more than a month’s rain has fallen across parts of England in the past 24 hours and warned of continued flooding in parts of the East Midlands and South Yorkshire today.
It added “people are being urged to prepare for the risk of significant flooding for the rest of this week”.
Katharine Smith, EA’s flood duty manager said: “Ongoing flooding is probable on some larger rivers including the Severn, Ouse and Trent through to Tuesday.”
Julie Foley, the director of flood strategy and adaptation, told BBC Breakfast: “We’ve got a lot of water moving through our river catchments, so we’re going to continue to see river levels rise.
“We’ve sadly seen over the last couple of days just how dangerous flood waters can be.
“It’s really important that people stay away from swollen rivers.”
