At around half six this evening we picked the keys up to make our way to the car as we were on our way over to some friend for an evening meal.

We'd both been listening and remarking on the heavy rain we'd been having late afternoon but what I saw out of the hall window when I went to shut the curtains was just unbelievable!

I literally couldn't see the road... all I could see was water. It was like we were living in a house with a Lakeside View!

We went up stars to get a better view out of the bedroom window and what we saw was pretty disturbing. The road had disappeared and the water level was rising pretty quickly.

The pavement out side our house was also underwater and lapping at the first step. Luckily there are two further steps to go up before you reach our front door, so we weren't that concerned it would come in to the house at any point, but it looked like it wouldn't be too long before it was up to door level on Neil's car.

The day before Neil already had to clear a load of leaves from the drain as he couldn't get in to his car due to a hugh puddle right where his car door opened so he thought it must be the same problem.

Jumped into action-man mode quickly putting on some old clothes Neil waded out into what was now pretty much a river. I could see from my point of viewing that the water stretched a fair way up the road and didn't take too long before the water level reached the hight of the curb on the central reservation in the middle of the road and was now lapping over this on to the grass.

Neil spent the next half an hour or so sometimes knee deep in the water trying to clear the leaves and all kinds of debris out of the drain directly outside the house and at some point it did look like it was helping as you could just make out from the water whirlpool that the water was starting to drain away, just like when you pull the plug out of a basin.

Unfortunately not all that many car drivers were understanding and a few times Neil got drenched from the spray from cars and at least one bus not slowing down and quite literally ploughing through the water and not only drenching Neil but the cars also parked outside our houses.

When drivers decided to not attempt to drive through the 'river' and turn around and find another way around I thought this is bad... so I made a call to the council on their emergency hot line. All they did was ask for the post code to the house and say they were dealing with a fair few problems.

Once Neil did what he could, which included clearing all the 3 drains further up the road we both thought the problem must be further down in the drains and no matter how much clearing of debris it wasn't going to solve the problem.

Neil decided to attempt to move his car out of the rising waters by reversing out of the water and park his car in the neighbouring church car park. From then on all we could do was watch and wait to see what happened.

Luckily not long after that the torrential down pour eased off and turned to light rain and within an hour or so, the river had subsided and we could see the road again!

Gotta say I think if Neil hadn't jumped in to action like he did the water would have got even deeper than it did and all the leaves that were blocking the drain would have stopped the water draining away as quick as it did.

UPDATE

We found out the next day that Neil made the 'residents' Facebook page with a few people posting their thanks and a quite other places near to us also flooded with one still being like a river the following morning!