Scotland and the north of England were experiencing severe weather last night, with gusts of up to 100 m.p.h. expected in Scotland.
By 6 p.m. yesterday, the UK Met Office had issued severe gale warnings for northern England, Northern Ireland and all of Scotland. Warnings of high winds prompted the nuclear company BNFL to send all non-essential staff home from its Sellafield nuclear processing plant on the Cumbrian coast, where buildings suffered external damage from weekend winds.
"Staff are being asked to return to work at their normal times on Thursday in order to further reduce risk from any potential hazard such as airborne debris," the company said in a statement.
"Safety cover will be maintained in accordance with established procedures," it added.
The British government last night announced a review of the flood warning system as local authorities in the UK began the mammoth task of clearing up damage caused by last weekend's freak weather.
A weather centre spokesman, Mr Gareth Harvey, said the worst of the overnight weather would be in the west and north-west of Scotland where there were going to be gale force winds. The highways agency urged motorists, and especially lorry drivers, to take extra care.
In Northumberland, engineers were working around-the-clock trying to restore water to the thousands of households cut off by the weekend storms. Up to 10,000 homes were estimated to be without water in the Hexham, Allendale and Slaley areas and around 70 emergency tankers and water tanks have been set up.
So far the water company has handed out 75,000 bottles of water from two dispensing stations in the town and 14 tankers are topping up local reservoirs.
Floods in Cumbria were still receding, although salvage attempts were hampered by further rain. Carlisle city centre was almost free of flood water by last night.