More than 100 flood warnings and alerts have been removed in the past 24 hours.

The Environment Agency has now withdrawn a total of 109 flood alerts and warnings across East Anglia.

It comes after the biggest tidal surge since 1953 battered coastal regions causing widespread flooding and damage to homes, businesses and sea defences in the early hours of Friday morning.

Seventeen flood alerts from the Environment Agency remain in force covering areas including the tidal River Waveney, the Suffolk and Essex coast from Felixstowe to Clacton including the Stour and Orwell estuaries, the Essex coast from Clacton to St Peter’s flat including the River Colne and Blackwater estuaries, the tidal Deben estuary, the coast at Southwold and the coast from Lowestoft to Bawdsey.

The clean-up operation has already started with those evacuated from their homes returning to assess the damage in Suffolk and Essex.

The high winds and area of low pressure which contributed to such a high tidal surge have moved away from our coast and towards Finland, leaving more settled weather over the weekend and into next week.

Jim Bacon, a forecaster at Weatherquest at the University of East Anglia, said Thursday night was “very definitely a short, sharp cold snap”, exacerbated by unusually high spring tides and fierce north-westerly winds, which produced the risk of flooding.

The weekend would be “an improving story”, he said. “You won’t believe how quickly it’s going to change because, although we’ve got cold air, enough for us to get a snow shower, [by Saturday] milder air will have moved in from the Atlantic and that will put us back into mild and fairly settled conditions for the whole of next week.”