East Anglia braced for severe floods

Cambridge was building its flood defences against the swollen Cam as river levels reached their highest point for 20 years and much of East Anglia faced another night of rain and rising waters.

Graham Watts, director of city services at Cambridge City Council, said yesterday: "We've got 30 people filling sandbags, and we're putting in pumps. But we had one-fifth of our normal annual rainfall in 12 hours on Sunday. The river came eight feet above its normal level – it was three feet over the river wall, which normally has about five feet of clearance. It breached our line of sandbags on Monday morning."

This flooding comes a year after twice the normal amount of rain for October brought chaos to parts of the South-east and northern England.

Mr Watts said he was concerned about flooding in Cambridge, though he believed the university colleges would be safe. "They have solid brick walls to hold the river, which is perhaps not surprising as they diverted the course of the river to make it run there. I suppose they built it with a large margin of error in mind," he said.

Torrential downpours on Sunday caused damage costing hundreds of thousands of pounds to properties in parts of East Anglia, which had escaped last year's floods mostly unscathed. Worst hit at the weekend were areas of Braintree, Essex, and villages bordering the Cam near Cambridge. Hundreds of homes in Riverside, near the city centre, were at risk. Residents were consulted earlier this year on new flood defences, including walls in front of their homes, but many were reluctant to implement them. "It affects the appearance of the property," Mr Watts said. "Some people there now have their own pumps to get water out."

The latest weather marked a shift towards intense rainfall, bringing in its wake flash flooding, as run-off from fields led to swollen rivers. Kent, East Sussex and East Anglia were particularly seriously affected, the Environment Agency said. In Upstreet, Kent, 40mm (1.57in) of rain fell in four hours. Folkington in East Sussex saw 20mm in four hours. Those were dwarfed, though, by Braintree, where 70mm of rain fell in 12 hours. That caused knock-on problems. Jonathan Wortley, the regional flood watch manager, said: "Now the excess water is getting into tributaries and we are getting people flooded as upper areas of rivers overflow."

Planners are now anxiously asking how much rain will fall this winter. So far nobody knows – although climate forecasters suggest the warming sea will mean a warmer winter with more rain.

The Meteorological Office has made no predictions of rainfall levels for November. The weather will be "unsettled, rather warm", it says.