Rayleigh flood leaves 15 homes deluged and car destroyed

Firefighters and police attended the scene in The Chase, Rayleigh, yesterday afternoon after a burst water main near the junction with Bull Lane.

Bewildered residents were left to walk through knee-deep water as they escaped their homes to find out what was going on.

It is understood the water affected around 15 homes and was two to three foot deep in some places at its peak.

Evan Norfolk, who lives on The Chase, said his garage was flooded and one of his cars has wrecked as a result of the flood.

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He said: “It was like a flash flood. Unfortunately it’s ruined one of my cars. It’s flooded my garage and ruined loads of my stuff. One of the cars has broke and it has torn up some of my driveway. It’s flooded everything.

“The emergency services were here helping. I’m annoyed but what can you do. It is what it is.”

Another Rayleigh resident, who asked not to be named described seeing people knee-deep in water.

She said: “I picked my daughter up from school and as we were coming down the road I thought we were not going to get through there. It was just gushing down the road.

“There were a couple of blokes trying to help people. It’s very uneven there but it was up to people’s knees in some places.”

A spokesperson for the fire service said: “Fire crews found a route for the water to flow into a nearby natural brook, which reduced the depth of water.”

Deputy leader of Rochford Council, Cheryl Roe is urging any families affected by the flooding to get in touch with the council.

A spokesperson for Essex & Suffolk Water said: “We were called to a burst water main in a field close to Bull Lane, just before 4pm.

“Our technicians arrived on site within 10 minutes and were able to isolate the burst in a safe manner.”