Families face horrendous clean-up after high tide flooded their homes - turning gardens into swimming pools and writing off 15 cars

Families whose homes have been ravaged by flood water have today been left picking up the pieces.

Severe downpours and strong winds brought by Storm Pierrick brought flooding chaos to the UK yesterday as more than 200 people were evacuated in West Sussex.

Dozens of devastated families in Gosport, Hampshire, also had their homes ruined after a high tide swept into their properties, turning their gardens into swimming pools and writing off 15 cars.

Fire crews scrambled to evacuate 50 homes in the quaint village of Alverstoke, after a nearby tidal lake unexpectedly overflowed after reaching never-before-seen levels  at midnight on Tuesday morning.

Today, heartbroken residents have been left counting the damage as they were pictured sifting through their damaged carpets and sofas with a huge pile of furnishing and electrical goods being stacked in the street.

Families whose homes have been ravaged by flood water in Hampshire have today been left picking up the pieces

Residents in Alverstoke, near Gosport, have been pulling ruined furniture from their homes after a tidal creek unexpectedly burst its banks on Tuesday

Today, heartbroken residents have been left counting the damage as they were pictured sifting through their damaged carpets and sofas

Chris Blake, who was one of the people affected, said the water burst over the sand bags protecting his home just after midnight.

‘My whole ground floor was flooded and the water was up to my knees. My back garden was like a swimming pool. It has caused an awful lot of damage. We were at the epicentre of the flooding,’ he told local paper The News, in Portsmouth.

Councillor Stephen Hammond, claimed 15 vehicles had been written off, including one family’s new BMW.

‘People have been pumping water out of their houses,’ he said. ‘There was two to three feet of water outside the houses. I have never seen flooding like this before.’

Cllr Hammond said the water surged over the sea defences, with the high tide disrupting the sewage system.

‘People in the houses don’t know what to do,’ he added. ‘The families are all distraught.’

The flooding comes after cash for a key flood defence scheme at Alverstoke’s creek dried up, leaving the project in limbo.

More than £1million had been spent on the project before it was shelved indefinitely due to money woes at Gosport Borough Council.

The flooding comes after cash for a flood defence scheme at Alverstoke’s creek dried up, leaving the project in limbo (pictured is the choppy water at Stokes Bay, Gosport)

More than £1million had been spent on the project before it was shelved indefinitely due to money woes at Gosport Borough Council (pictured is a pile of tattered rugs and carpets)

Pictured is where the flood defence scheme set to protect Alverstoke was due to be constructed

Last year. the authority’s leader said there was not enough funding to deliver the coastal defences plan for Alverstoke and nearby Forton.

The proposed schemes were meant reduce flood risk to 341 properties over the next 50 years from a one in 100 year event.

But in January 2023, Gosport council boss Peter Chegwyn said: ‘Construction work at the Alverstoke and Forton sites has been put on hold due to inflationary pressures and a lack of the funding required from the government’s Environment Agency to cover the extra costs.’

In a statement today on the Coastal Partners website, which details all the flood defence projects in the area, the organisation wrote: ‘Due to a series of unforeseen site risks and severe cost inflation pressures in the civil engineering industry, construction work at Alverstoke has been put on hold until further notice.’

Caroline Dinenage, MP for Gosport, said action will be taken to work out how to tackle the flooding following the tidal deluge.

‘Once the initial damage has been dealt with, there needs to be a meeting of the various utilities and emergency services to establish how this could happen with so little warning and what measures need to be taken to stop this from happening again,’ the former health minister told MailOnline.

A very high tide in Langstone High street, near Havant in Hampshire caused flooding

One person took to using a canoe to get around the flood water in Langstone High Street

The news comes as more than 250 areas of Britain were put on flood alert today as rail lines were shut and wet weather continued with further ‘very heavy and persistent’ rain.

The Met Office issued a rain warning for Scotland for up to 2.4in (60mm) to fall over a 13-hour period between 9am and 10pm.

Flooding continued to caused rail chaos, with Great Western Railway trains cancelled between Liskeard and Looe in Cornwall after the line became blocked.

Transport for Wales services were axed between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog in the north; and between Machynlleth and Aberystwyth in the west.

The Environment Agency imposed 182 alerts for ‘possible’ flooding and 33 warnings for ‘expected’ flooding in England. Natural Resources Wales activated 19 alerts and two warnings, while environment officials in Scotland had 14 alerts and six warnings.

An aerial view of a large cliff fall at Hive Beach in Burton Bradstock, Dorset, this morning

Debris this morning following a large cliff fall at Hive Beach in Burton Bradstock, Dorset

Colourful skies at dawn over the Oxfordshire countryside at Dunsden this morning

The Milky Way arcs over Bamburgh Lighthouse in Northumberland in the early hours of today

Met Office forecasters say heavy rain will continue to batter parts of the UK throughout today

The Met Office issued a rain warning for Scotland for up to 2.4in (60mm) to fall over 13 hours

The Met Office yellow rain warning for western Scotland runs between 9am and 10pm today

Forecasters said heavy rain would continue to batter parts of the UK today, particularly Northern Ireland, northwestern England and western areas of Scotland.

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But much of central England and Wales will experience a milder day after yesterday’s storm, which was named Pierrick by Meteofrance.

Met Office meteorologist Annie Shuttleworth said: ‘Most areas are going to feel on the chilly side to start the day (on Wednesday).

‘There will be a good deal of sunshine particularly across eastern areas through the morning, the South East seeing the longest-lived sunshine tomorrow morning, but across the West it’s really going to deteriorate through the day.

‘Some very heavy and persistent rain will push through Northern Ireland into northwestern England and western areas of Scotland – that’s where there is a rain warning in force.

‘There could be 60mm of rain falling through the day on Wednesday.’

She continued: ‘Further south across much of central England and Wales and the South Coast too it will be a much cloudier afternoon.

The Environment Agency has 182 flood alerts (in amber) and 33 warnings (in red) for England

Flood water inundated a caravan park near Braclesham on the West Sussex coast yesterday

Floodwater rises up around a parked car at New Brighton in Merseyside yesterday afternoon

Flooding affected LNER trains between Newcastle and Berwick-upon-Tweed yesterday

Flooding at Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex yesterday as heavy rain hit England’s south coast

‘There will be some rain from time to time but I think if you’re away from the West and from coastal areas, rain will be fairly limited and it’s actually going to be a significantly milder day tomorrow with this southerly wind bringing with it this mild air.’

It comes after more than 200 people were evacuated in West Sussex yesterday after the River Arun burst its banks.

They included about 180 people rescued overnight from Medmerry Holiday Park in Earnley and about 15 from Ferry Road and Rope Walk in Littlehampton, West Sussex County Council said.

One person showing signs of hypothermia was taken to hospital. Residents described the flooding as ‘scary and unprecedented’.

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