Thunderstorms cause chaos in Southend

Thunderstorms hit South Essex following the hottest day of of the year, bringing lightning strikes and a heavy downpour.

Essex County fire and rescue service had a busy Tuesday afternoon as they were called to a high number of weather related incidents.

Underground cabling in Southend caught light when a lightning strike hit a stretch of pavement. Fire crews attended and stood by while electricity engineers dealt with the incident.

A heavy rainfall in a short period of time lead to many small floods occurring. Many drains across the area could not cope with the amount of rain and caused roads to flood. People who had driven into the flooded areas became trapped in cars, keeping the fire and rescue service busy.

Police attended a number of flooded roads across Southend to try and keep traffic moving and away from the flooded areas.

Southend Council’s drain cleaner was dispatched quickly to unblock drains and remove water from flooded roads. An underground drain overflowed at St Mary’s School in Boston Avenue, Southend, with sewage seeping from a manhole cover. Anglian water engineers promptly attended to overflowing sewers and drains. In most cases of small floods on roads, the rain water eventually flowed away once the storm had passed.