EMERGENCY services were stretched to the limit as heavy rain turned West Devon into a giant quagmire this week.
More than two inches of rain fell in 24 hours on Tuesday causing road closures, and rivers were on flood alert. A number of properties were also affected by the downpour.
This latest deluge came on top of high rainfall last Friday when more than three-and-a half inches fell on Dartmoor swamping fields and turning roads into streams.
One of the worst hit areas was Horrabridge where flooding caused extensive ground floor damage to four houses at the village end of the Whitchurch Road yesterday.
The road was closed between Horrabridge School and the Grenofen turning as three fire appliances pumped water out of the properties. The freak flood also set the road awash with stones and silt.
Mrs Slafka Scragg raised the alarm when she entered her kitchen at 6am to find it flooded. Water had also entered the utility room and study.
'I came down to get ready for work and have breakfast and found the whole floor was four inches deep with water,' she said.
'The floor isn't level so it was lapping at the hall. I never thought I'd be grateful there was a slope .'
Mrs Scragg who is studying at Plymouth University said a lot of her books and papers were soaked.
'We have lived here six years and never had anything like this. But I have resigned myself to it and just got on with clearing up the mess. There is no point getting upset. It is one of those things. It's only water!'
Her husband, David, said the water was running in through the back wall. He praised the work of the fire service.
'They have been brilliant. They have done their job excellently,' he said.
Meanwhile, the couple's six-year-old son, Max, was entering into the Dunkirk spirit. A pupil of Horrabridge School, Max was wearing his wellies indoors and helping to bale out the water with a beaker.
Next door Peter and Daphne Masoli had been suffering similar problems.
'At one time it was coming in faster than we could get it out,' said Mr Masoli, who woke up imagining he was off for a game of golf but instead ended up wielding a broom.
The couple knocked out a stone from the back step which helped unblock the indoor dam.
'There was about one-and-a-half inches of water throughout the bottom of the house — the laundry room, kitchen, lounge and hall. Fortunately, we managed to stop it going too far into the lounge,' said Mr Masoli.
He said they had experienced problems with the water pressure for the last month and initially thought it was the plumbing.
'I turned the water off at the front — but it wasn't coming from the mains but coming up from the floor. There are a lot of wells on the other side of the road and when the water table gets high it opens up the old courses.'
Fire service assistant divisional officer Alan Phillips from Plympton fire station said at the time he did not know precisely what caused the flood.
'There is a broken water-main up the road. Because of the heavy rain the leat behind the houses filled, the water table has lifted and activated a natural spring.'
He said 'fairly extensive damage' had been caused to the ground floors.
'We have had worse floods in terms of depth but this is one of the most unusual in that the water is coming from beneath the houses.'
More flood reports, see printed paper