Eastbourne residents 'terrified' as homes are flooded for the fourth time

A row of houses in Linden Close were flooded yesterday (Monday, July 4).

Resident Matthew Warrington was in his garden at 1.30pm when a neighbour alerted him.

He said, “It was like a wave, there was no stopping it.”

The deluge rushed in, damaging his ground floor with contaminated water.

Mr Warrington said, “I'll lose everything downstairs. South East Water doesn't have an emergency number. I spent 30 minutes on the phone and then they took another 30 minutes to get out here.”

Natalie Skeggs was at home with her 11-month-old grandson. She said, “I picked up the baby and it was already coming into the hallway. I couldn't get to the electrics in time to turn them off.

“It was like a like a river coming out my backdoor. Everything is ruined from the front to back door.”

Tricia Stewart was at work when Ms Skeggs called to tell her what had happened.

She said, “I panicked and felt helpless. My manager brought me home but in 15 minutes it was already in the house.

“I've been told it's likely to be contaminated water too so it smells. We're all so upset.”

Dave and Andrea Carter were out and called by neighbours. Mr Carter said, “We got there to find the house was floating.

“It was a disturbing day.”

The last time the homes were flooded for the same reason was in 2018. It happened again in June and twice in September.

Read that story here

Mr Carter said, “This is the fourth time this has happened. We’ve only just replaced the hall carpet this year, and we've still got no inner doors because they were swollen from the last flood.

“The water board should compensate us this time, we're not claiming on our own insurance again.”

Mr Warrington said, “It took nine months to fix everything last time. We'd just started to relax again and now it's happened again.

“South East Water made promises last time it wouldn't happen again, it's ridiculous.”

Ms Skeggs said, “It's terrifying. I feel like I can hear water running, I'm constantly checking.”

The residents want answers as to why this has been able to happen again.

Ms Stewart said, “I can't understand why it keeps happening here. We were told it would be fixed and nothing has happened.

“No one has apologised, and who knows how long it will take to get sorted again?”

The residents said today (Tuesday, July 5) the clean-up continues with carpets being ripped up and furniture removed from their homes. They say they are yet to hear from South East Water.

South East Water apology

Photos from the flooding

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