STAFF at a cafe made a makeshift barricade using their A boards, outside tables and rolled up towels to keep the floods at bay.

Lunch In a Bag cafe, in Fairfax Drive, Westcliff, was open when the torrential rain came down.

Owner Paul Crane described water cascading down Silverdale Avenue and Inverness Avenue into Fairfax Drive, where the parade of shops are.

Mr Crane, from Westcliff, said: “It was phenomenal.

There were heavy downpours and it started running on to the path and people walking along were being soaked by cars driving by. The water was cascading down towards us.

“My wife, Frances, and I and our two staff, Shane Maddox and Amber Small, went out and folded the tables up and our cafe open sign, too, and put them against the door to keep the water away.

We also used a load of towels and pretty much stopped it coming in.

It only made it on to the doormat.

“We were very lucky. If we hadn’t been open, it would have flooded us. The chip shop next door had a bit of flooding.”

Mr Crane said he saw “careless”

drivers speeding through the water creating waves that pushed towards the shops.

He said: “The most annoying thing was we had to stand in the road and tell drivers to slow down as the waves they created made it worse.

“I‘ve contacted the council as the drains weren’t clear. If they had been, it would’ve made it to the stream.”

The cafe was back open an hour-and-a-half later.