Monday West Sussex had a month's worth of rain over night. We woke up at 4am when we heard a loud crash, which was our waste bins (wheelie bins) falling over. Looked out the front window and the front garden and drive were already under 60cm (2 feet) of water and quickly rising towards our front door. Looking out the back, the garden was also under the same amount.

We rushed downstairs and alerted our 2 neighbours. The end house was already flooding. Called the Fire Brigade who came round about 6-7am. They said they couldn't pump any of the water away and would only help us evacuate if the house was being flooded. And basically said the house would flood.

By 10am the house was flooding, and 2 hours later the ground floor was flooded with 8-10 cm (3 inches) of water. The water actually came up through the floor, rather than in through the doors! We managed to get all belongings upstairs before this happened, and a builder in the next road lent us bricks to raise all our furniture up out of the water just in time before it flooded.

The water stayed at that level until late that night, and then over night completely drained away.

We had the insurance assessor in today to look at the damage. We have to move out for between 3-6 months into rented accommodation. All of the ground level floors have to be ripped out, the stud walls cut out and the house professionally dried before builders can repair it all and then lay new floors and decorate everything.

This is a complete nightmare and at the moment we really don't know what to think.

Not sure what internet access I will have in the coming weeks and months, so if you don't see me online much you will know why.

I've taken lots of pictures of the flooding and damage and will add some here if and when I get chance.

More heavy rain is forecast this weekend, so it could all flood again.