Flash floods cause misery on the roads

The worst-affected areas included the Coutanchez, Les Vauxbelets and Les Sages. A spokesman for the Met Office confirmed that between 10pm on Thursday and 10am yesterday 34.7mm of rain fell, double the monthly average rainfall for a 24-hour period. The most on record was in 1950 when there was 38mm of rainfall over a 24-hour period.

States Works senior technical manager Nick Nicolle said that between 4am and 5am it had 'rained like hell'. Roughly 50 members of staff had been driving around affected areas in the early hours of the morning but, in places like the Countanchez, where water was bursting through drain covers, there was little they could do.

'In situations like this when you have flash flooding you just have to let nature take its course and wait for everything to drain away.'

Despite police road signs warning drivers the road was closed, many chose to ignore them and ploughed their way through the

flooding. Police traffic sergeant John Tostevin said doing so was dangerous and urged drivers to pay attention to road closures.

'It's putting an unnecessary risk on other people and property.

'The water was quite high and when people drive through it they send it into properties left, right and centre,' he said.

Yesterday's weather also forced Condor to cancel its Poole service to Guernsey. The ferry had been half-way to the island but turned back due to unpredicted wave heights. Arrangements were made for passengers to travel at a later date.