MORE than two billion litres of rain fell in last month’s deluge, but it failed to damage any gullies or drains in Southend.

Exploratory work on Southend Council’s network of surface water gullies and drains has revealed no damage following the floods on Saturday, August 24.

The investigations centred on the seafront area, which suffered badly when a month’s rain fell in four hours, and resulted in a number of businesses and homes being flooded.

The most significant damage was caused to manhole covers across the borough, which Anglian Water swiftly repaired.

The council deep cleans all its surface drains and gullies twice a year, in addition to responding to reported blockages or as a result of general inspections.

Tony Cox, councillor responsible for public protection and waste, said: “I’m delighted our network remained robust and efficient during this time, which wasareal testament to the hard work of our contractor Cory’s teams of workers.

“I’m also pleased Anglian Water swiftly replaced blown manhole covers and repaired road damage caused by rusted-in manhole covers on its waste water network.”

The council and Cory mustered a team of more than 50 to tackle the flooding.

Mr Cox added: “As soon as they were able, the team set about clearing the roads, walkways and pavements.

“Clearly, one of our priorities was to clear the area of sewage, but our next task was to ensure a considerable quantity of stones, silt and foliage hadn’t blocked the surface water drains and gullies.”