Although river levels are dropping in flood hit Perthshire, the latest severe weather warning means the possibility of further flooding remains high.

Staff at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in Perth have been monitoring the situation around the clock, issuing flood warnings where necessary.

At the height of yesterday’s problems seven severe flood warnings were in place for the river sytem around Perth, triggering the use of the multi-million pound flood defences.

“River levels on the Tay and Earn have both dropped by a metre since yesterday afternoon,” said SEPA senior hydrologist Malcolm MacConnachie today.

Mr MacConnachie said it was a matter of watching and waiting to assess the impact of rain in the west and on high ground on local rivers.

Over 50 monitoring stations feed information down the phone lines to the SEPA headquarters in Whitefriars Crescent.

Melting snow combined with persistent rain — over 250 milimetres recorded in Glen Lyon in just seven days — swelled the river system causing major problems.

At Ballathie on the Tay yesterday the sixth highest flow of water recorded over the past 50 years was experienced.

On the River Earn the fourth highest levels in 30 years were recorded.

Although the people of Perth escaped largely unscathed by yesterday’s flooding — incidents were contained to water coming up through drains — others in communities across Perth and Kinross were forced from their homes by the rising waters.

The level of the anxiety is reflected in the number of people accessing the SEPA website — 75,000 hits over the weekend compared with 1500 in a normal week.

“If people have concerns they should look at the website (www.sepa.org.uk/flooding/) to see if flood warnings are in force,” said Mr MacConnachie.

A spokesperson for Perth & Kinross Council said they were maintaining their high level of vigilance.

“The general picture across the area is that river levels are receding for the moment, although given the predicted high winds and further rainfall, the council will continue to monitor conditions and will stay in constant contact with SEPA,” he said.

“The well practised procedures to implement the use of Perth’s flood defence system ran smoothly and the system came through its first major test without incident.”

Meanwhile, Fife Council’s emergency planning unit is ready to respond to severe weather.

With gales and heavy rain on the way, council staff are on stand-by in case of flooding or structural damage caused by high winds.

The emergency planning unit, along with the council’s transportation department, receives severe weather warnings straight from the Met Office.

Emergency planning officer Gordon Jacobs said, “We make sure these severe weather warnings are passed immediately to all Fife services.”

Unit staff work in conjunction with the police and fire service to respond to incidents, and are contacted by the emergency services when required.

“We have about 24 pages of telephone numbers of managers we can call in to organise the council’s response,” said Mr Jacobs.

“It may be that people need to be evacuated.

“We have about 480 premises throughout Fife we can use as emergency centres. These include community centres, church halls and schools. It’s quite an extensive operation.”

Through their emergency planning units, local authorities throughout Scotland share knowledge to help each other prepare for disasters from flooding to plane crashes.

In November, Mr Jacobs visited colleagues from Carlisle City Council, to learn about information systems.

Emergency planners in Carlisle are now immersed in the clean-up operation after the recent floods and will relay what they have learned from the experience to other councils throughout the country.

Mr Jacobs said, “We review our plans every year.

“When we get feedback from Carlisle, or anywhere else, we will send a copy of the results of the de-briefing to our emergency planning officers.”

Recent severe wind and rain could be a sign of more unpredictable weather in the future, said Mr Jacobs.

He added, “I would leave discussions on climate change to the experts and just respond to what happens.

“But there has certainly been more disruptive and changeable weather, particularly in England and Wales where there has been horrendous flooding in the last three or four years.”