PARTS of Colchester were turned into no-go areas after hours of torrential rain caused flooding.

Essex Fire and Rescue Service dealt with a total of 13 flood incidents across the county including in Colchester where a row of apartments had flooded.

Residents living at Hull House Mews, on Waterside Lane, swept water from their homes while fire crews from Colchester, Manningtree, Wivenhoe, Maldon and Lexden Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) pumped it into the River Colne.

Karen Fox, 55, who has lived at Hull House Mews for nearly two years, was at work when a neighbour alerted her to the chaos.

Gazette:

Karen Fox.

Ms Fox said: “The water came through both the front and back doors completely ruining my furniture and all the flooring.

“There’s no way I can stay here as it’s uninhabitable so I’ll have to spend a few days with family who live nearby.

“The flats have flooded before but the issue we have is no-one wants to accept liability for the pond.”

The downpour led to many road closures including Haven Road and Albany Gardens, at the Hythe.

  • For a full gallery of flood pictures, click here.

It took West Mersea firefighters about two hours to make Butterfly Barns Day Nursery safe when its car park and garden flooded.

Alison Day, manager at the nursery, which caters to infants up to five-years-old, said they were all fascinated.

She said: “We had just 25 children in because it was a quiet morning but they really enjoyed seeing the fire engines.

“The firefighters came out quite quickly and said they’ll visit again to let the children sit in the fire engines. Luckily there was no damage to the building and we stayed open throughout.”

Nearby Distillery Pond, which flooded, is privately managed by PMS Leasehold Management, based at Newcomen Way.

Terry Sutton, a director at the company, said it had people on site all day trying to help fix the suspected problem. It also ran an overnight phone system for people to alert the company.

He added: “Major works took place two years ago to rectify the problems on our part of the site, which is the pond and the estate affected by it.

"We suspect the cause this time is nothing to do with the major works and is a collapsed drain but we cannot get to it because of the sheer volume of water."