'Water came through my hallway like a tide'

A woman whose house was flooded after heavy rainfall has said the water swept through her hallway "like a tide".

Frances Ward walked down the stairs of her terraced house in Berinsfield, Oxfordshire, on Monday to find the ground floor under 2 inches (5cm) of water.

Parts of the county saw more than 100mm (4 inches) of rain fall on Sunday and Monday.

Seven Environment Agency flood warnings remain near Bicester, Kidlington and Abingdon-on-Thames.

Elsewhere in the county, water levels rose overnight after the River Ock in Abingdon burst its banks.

Mrs Ward said her house flooded twice on Monday, ruining carpets and damaging precious birth and wedding certificates.

"The carpets are smelling horribly, I just want them ripped up and taken outside," she said.

"My husband and I, we're not in the best health and I'm worried it's going to affect my breathing."

The 76-year-old said she had to sit upstairs and wait for her son and son-in-law to come over and help sweep the water out.

"The housing association promised to bring out the dehumidifier but no-one seems to be helping," she added.

The adverse weather has affected wider communities, with some schools closing, disruption to trains and some motorists forced to abandon cars on submerged roads.

On Wednesday morning, Tesco confirmed its Abingdon Extra store had been temporarily shut because its car park had flooded.

Some parts of the UK experienced more than a month's worth of rain in a matter of hours over the weekend and Monday.

A Met Office yellow weather warning has been put in place for Thursday and Friday, with further downpours expected across England and Wales.

Homes were flooded in Chaunterell Way in Abingdon, where one family was evacuating with their six-month-old baby.

Jon House said water was coming up through floorboards in his living room.

He said: "If it's going to flood the house, I don't want him in here - it's not safe for him to be in it. So the wife was much happier with the idea of having him out and taking him to family somewhere else.

"We've packed all the clothes for him and us, everything in the downstairs of the house we've moved to upstairs, so we've done what we can.

"When the water's down, we'll come back, see what the damage is and take it from there I guess."

With more rain in the forecast, there is concern the flooding could get worse.

Resident Jo Simmons said: "It just makes you so anxious, it's just horrendous.

"In 2007 I lived here when it was flooded, the whole house - all the way through. Then nothing happened for years and years, never used to come out on the road.

"And now it comes out on the road twice in a year - and badly. What do you do then? We're never going to sell the house are we? Who the hell's going to buy the house? So we're just stuck with no help."

Oxfordshire County Council has faced criticism from some residents who claimed the problems had arisen because the area's drains were not being maintained properly.

Andrew Gant, the authority's member for transport management, said dozens of teams had been clearing gullies regularly since January in an effort to prevent blockages.

He admitted the system was "quite old" but said it would be costly to replace the whole thing.

"In terms of renewing the asset we've got, we have to do a combination of maintenance and replacement but those things are expensive, they cost money, so we will do what we can," he said.

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