After Storm Frank, Scotland rallies to fix itself amid the chaos

Two people die in Scotland as fierce rains and flooding hit Dumfries and Aberdeenshire, with a further battering set to come

The red roller doors of Ballater fire station are splayed apart like a broken umbrella, the metal buckled by tonnes of flood water from the river Dee. On New Year's Day, members of the stricken community on Royal Deeside appeared dazed at the scale of the devastation wrought by Storm Frank, swapping stories of personal losses on street corners, amid fears that some residents may be unable to return to their waterlogged homes for up to a year.

The volunteer-led clean-up operation in Scotland's worst-affected areas of Dumfries and Aberdeenshire began early on New Year's morning, as the Met Office upgraded weather warnings for north-east and central Scotland to amber over the weekend. Early on Friday morning, police confirmed that a man had died as a result of the heavy flooding after he fell from a canoe into a rapid-flowing river bringing the storm's death toll to two.