Residents living along the Wye are bracing themselves amid reports that today is the calm before the storm and there is more torrential rain to come.

This morning evacuated residents living along the eastern banks of the river in Monmouth were returning home after fears that the river would burst its banks with catastrophic consequences failed to materialise.

But after the wettest weekend the Wye Valley has known since records began, the river remains stubbornly high and many are worried that the days and weeks ahead will bring water into their homes.

River levels at Monmouth remain high and more heavy rain is expected as the peak makes its way down river through Tintern and Chepstow to the Bristol Channel.

But even though the Met Office say there is a risk of prolonged heavy showers dropping up to 25mm of rain on already saturated ground today (tusesad), the Environment Agency say particularly low tides on the Bristol Channel have safeguarded Chepstow.

As the mopping up continues after flash floods across Herefordshire, the Forest of Dean and Monmouthshire, many residents fear there could be worse to come if any of the rain continues to fall on the Wye's catchment area in Wales.

Paul Hayes of the award winning Garden Café in Lower Lydbrook watched the water from the Wye sweep across the road and into his garden over the weekend and is worried about heavy rain forecast for the Welsh mountains which drain into the Wye.

"It did not come in this time and it has started to drop back but we are worried about what the next few days will bring because if it is as bad as predicted, we are in for quite a severe flood," said Mr Hayes who has been flooded several times.

"If it had been winter we would have flooded already. Personally I think the only reason we haven't is because the crops are still in the ground and the leaves still on the trees.

"They soak up thousands of gallons of water and that's made all the difference . All we can do is see how much rain falls on the catchment areas in Wales and then wait for it to reach us."

Most of those who spent Sunday night with relatives or at local hotels were pensioners who live in the 35 mobile homes on Riverside Caravan site overlooking the river at the Wye Bridge in Monmouth.

Kenneth Middle, 71, and wife Pauline, 73 were given just ten minutes to pack a bag and leave the mobile home they have lived in for the past nine years and would not be surprised to be evacuated again over the coming weeks.

"We were washing up after dinner when they knocked on the door," said Mrs Middle. "It was very frightening because everybody was here and they obviously thought we were in danger.

"I asked for an hour to pack up but they wanted us out straight away so it was a bit of a panic. It was very worrying because it's your home, it's all you've got."

The Mr Middle said: "I'm a fisherman and when you live here you get used to watching the river.

"It was very high and I knew we had to go because there was a lot more water upstream on its way down to us

"It's what will happen over the next few days that's bothering me, The river is still high and they are forecasting more rain. We need a few weeks without rain so everything can dry out but I can't see that happening."

Ronald Knight, 68, said: "It was very frightening. The site was swarming with police and men in black jackets and they were obviously expecting something bad to happen.

"Someone said they were expecting it to reach six metres above normal so we decided to go, My wife Iris was panicking but everybody was brilliant and they really looked after us."

Margaret and Malcolm Morley were amongst those who decided to stay put: "We've lived here long enough to know the river and we decided to stay until it started coming over the edge of the patio," said Mrs Morley.

"We were not putting anybody's lives at risk because we have lived here long enough to know exactly when we need to get out."

Ironically Monmouth inventor Lyndon Owen chose yesterday to launch his latest high tech gizmo – a flood alarm.

The latest creation by his company E2L works like a smoke alarm and sounds when it detects water on the floor.

When he picked his launch day he did not realise the town would be on flood alert after the wettest weekend ever recorded by the local monitoring station in Monmouth..