Schools and roads closed and homes flooded

Heavy rain has caused more disruption and damage across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, with roads and schools closed and homes flooded.

Bedford Borough Council released a list of road closures on X early on Friday, while members of REACT Disaster Response have been out in Bedford supporting residents and businesses.

Hertfordshire County Council said 45 homes in Hitchin were flooded after the River Purwell burst its banks early on Friday morning.

"You feel so helpless and vulnerable seeing water coming into your property, and some residents on this street can’t get insurance for their homes any more," said resident Jay Cooper.

Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service said crews were "working tirelessly" to help with the flooding in Hitchin, and that residents had been evacuated to St Faith's Church.

Ms Cooper said heavy rain on Sunday flooded her garden room, before more water came into the house on Friday.

"We stayed awake all Thursday night, calling the fire and rescue service, the Environment Agency and also Anglian Water about the foul water that’s rising."

Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue arrived at the scene in Woolgrove Road in the early hours of Friday and have since pumped 1.5 million litres of water away.

Ms Cooper said while heavy rain was responsible, more could have been done by highways company Ringway and the Environment Agency to mitigate it.

"I'm so angry at Ringway for coming out from the council to look at the drains this week, but doing nothing to clear them in preparation for more rain," she said.

"There’s been nothing from the Environment Agency to add some banking to the river to stop it from bursting its banks again, knowing full well we have a weather warning.

"It's incredibly frustrating to think that our house could have been saved again, but now it’s underwater. It’s devastating."

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said it had been "the worst rainfall in living memory".

"We have seen localised flooding across the county. Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service along with officers from Hertfordshire County Council and our contractors have been working tirelessly to tackle this," they added.

"Our contractors have a scheduled programme of drain and gully clearance, but the simple fact is that when a river overflows it banks there is too much water for the drains to deal with."

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: "All of our flood control structure are operating as intended with no communities being flooded in place of others.

"We wouldn’t create banking in front of properties during a flood response unless it was a pre-defined deployment in advance of that flooding. This is to ensure that this can be done safely."

Other towns and villages with rivers are on high alert, with many still trying to recover from flooding on Monday.

Moya Best, 76, from Shefford, Bedfordshire, said "you can't live with it" after her home was flooded by the River Flit, which backs on to her garden.

"I don't think it will ever get back to normal. I keep looking at it and thinking, 'This was my and my husband's home, and it doesn't even resemble a home'."

Several flood warnings remain in place around Bedford, Milton Keynes and Shefford as well as parts of Hertfordshire.

Meanwhile, Woburn in Bedfordshire has been listed as the wettest place in the UK, after recording 232.4mm (9.1in) of rainfall this month.

Scientists said extreme weather events were becoming more frequent and intense as a result of climate change.

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.