An upturned fridge-freezer, resting alongside a park bench on the roof of a detritus-strewn Volkswagen, told the story of the havoc wreaked by a surge of flood water in a small Northumberland market town.

More than 1,000 homes in Morpeth were flooded when the River Wansbeck burst its banks on Saturday morning, almost cutting off the town.

Yesterday’s pale sunlight served merely to emphasise the scale of the clean-up operation to come.

Nine hundred properties were evacuated and 300 residents, many of them elderly, spent the night in two emergency rescue centres. Some were preparing for a second night away from homes now caked in silt and already bearing the stench of invading waters that reached a height of three feet inside some properties.

George Gosling stood outside his mother’s home, gazing in bemusement at the wheelie bin suspended four feet from the ground by her wooden garden fence. A carpet of sludge lay where once was a lawn, flowers and shrubs. The inside of the house was no better.

“My mother’s 89 and she’s lost everything. The power of the water was unbelievable. She’s very upset, but the main thing is she’s all right. Things can be repaired.”

Morpeth’s roots go back to Norman times and the streets of the town centre, 16 miles (25km) north of Newcastle upon Tyne in the Wansbeck valley, date from the 13th century.

Older residents among the town’s 15,000 population, have clear memories of the last great flood, in March 1963, when 500 homes were affected.

Flood defences were built to prevent a repeat performance but, as recently as last year, concerns were voiced by local councillors that plans to update the defences were running behind schedule.

In January it was announced that the Environment Agency had secured cash to produce detailed design options for new flood walls and upstream water storage. It had been hoped that a decision would be made by next spring, with work starting “in the next three to five years”.

It will not come soon enough for Eva Sloan, 83, who was rescued from her riverside home by boat soon after noon on Saturday. Lisa Turnbull, 19, had waded through waist-deep water to reach her grandmother.

“I managed to get to her house and within minutes we had a knock on the door to tell us we had to get out,” she said. “By the time we got to the boat, the water was at shoulder height. One of gran’s cats jumped over the side and we don’t know what’s happened to it. All of gran’s belongings are damaged and we’ve been told that she won’t be able to move back in for 18 months. She’s lived there for more than 30 years and she’s lost so many keepsakes, including most of her family photos.”

At the height of the rescue operation, residents were being taken to safety by boat and by an RAF helicopter, whose crew winched several stranded householders from the upstairs rooms of flooded properties.

The British Red Cross sent three ambulances to assist the emergency services and helped to set up an evacuation centre for residents.

The waters receded as quickly as they rose. As the mopping-up operation moved into action, initial efforts concentrated on homes, shops and businesses. There had been no time to address the plight of Morpeth’s library, which lies a few feet from the river.

Its outside walls had been forced inwards by the power of the surging flood waters. Through shattered windows lay a floor piled high with sodden books.

Last night the Wansbeck continued to rush through Morpeth at threatening speed, confined – for now – to its usual course but only inches from escaping the top of its banks. The ground remains saturated. More rain is forecast. Further flooding is feared tomorrow.