Heavy rain causes flooding in Chichester and West Sussex

The downpours resulted in some flooding at the popular Sloe Fair in Chichester’s Northgate carpark last night (October 20).

Other parts of the county were also affected with reports of the A272 between Rogate and Sheet temporarily blocked due to flood water and a road traffic incident, and a section of M23 by Crawley closed due to flooding.

West Sussex firefighters were also called to Littlehampton to deal with flooding.

West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said torrential rain led to crews being called to ‘hundreds of surface water-related flooding incidents’, including at homes and some businesses.

Some people had to be rescued from cars, having driven into flood water.

Its social media post read: “There’s still a lot of surface water out there and some road closures in place. If you have to travel this morning, please take extra care on your journey and heed road closures – don’t ignore them as you could be putting yourself and responders in harm if you get stuck.”

The fire service said that, between the hours of 8pm and 12.30am, Joint Fire Control received 90 calls to incidents in West Sussex – the majority being flooding-related.

“Some of the 999 calls we received were to assist stranded vehicles and to pump floodwater from affected properties,” a spokesperson said.

“For example, crews from Billingshurst were mobilised to Steyning Road, West Grinstead, following reports of a car stuck in water. On arrival there were no casualties and no-one was trapped. Crews moved the occupants to a safe location and closed the road.

“Later on in the evening, we were mobilised to a property which had been flooded in Clifton Road, Littlehampton. One crew from Bognor were mobilised and on arrival there were eight inches of floodwater in the basement of the property.

“Crews were able to pump the water out and undertake salvage work.”

Meanwhile, West Sussex Highways confimred that the latest flooding has not impacted works to repair a collapsed road near Petworth.

The A285 in Duncton, south of Seaford College, collapsed earlier this month due to exceptional rainfall. The road has been closed since Saturday, October 2 for safety reasons.

“The site has been checked by officers this morning and there is no visible change to the condition of the area at the time of the visit,” a county council spokesperson said.

Sussex weather: your forecast for Thursday, October 21