A MOTHER has described the heart-stopping moment water came gushing through the back door of her home during a flash flood.

Caitlin Pratt said she heard her three children, aged between four and nine-years-old, screaming as the water levels reached her door handle and all the electrics blew.

It came as torrential rain fell on Harwich with the excessive rainfall causing an already blocked main sewer to become overwhelmed, spilling raw sewage on to the streets and into people’s homes.

Miss Pratt, 31, of Victoria Street, Dovercourt, said it was a harrowing experience.

“The whole of my basement flooded water up to my knees. It had only been raining a few minutes before it came gushing through my back door, my children were screaming,” she said.

“I looked outside and by this time the water level was up by the door handle, then the electrics blew in the house and I had to rush my children to my friend’s house across the road.

“I then went back to try and open my lower back door but the water was too high. This wasn’t rain water, however, this was jet black water coming through and I couldn’t do anything about it.

“I have rabbits in my garden and I had to ask someone to break through my gate to check on them, but luckily enough they were both on the top floor of their hutch – the water was just missing them.”

Firemen soon arrived to pump water out of Miss Pratt’s house but she had to remain away due to the dangers posed by the faulty electrics.

Her children stayed with their neighbour while, alongside her partner and step-daughter, she visited Park Pavillion, in Barrack Lane, to receive help and food from the council before being put up in a hotel.

Miss Pratt described how when she returned on Saturday the whole of the downstairs was covered in a black, oily sludge.

Miss Pratt added: “I rang Anglian Water who admitted fault and to look into compensation, while a manager would call me.”

A spokesman for Anglian Water said: “These sudden downpours can overwhelm our network and pumping stations, however, we can reassure residents that all our assets in the area were operating at full capacity as they should.”