HASLEMERE shopkeepers were mopping up for the second time in three months as flash floods hit the town centre on Saturday morning.
The museum and Haslemere shops were ankle deep in rainwater seconds after the torrential rain storm sent water cascading down the newly surfaced High Street.
Angry and frustrated traders immediately questioned the effectiveness of the more than £100,000 worth of drainage improvements carried out over the past eight weeks in the High Street, works that were meant to bring an end to flooding problems in the town.
Torrents of water rushed down from both ends of the High Street, lifting newly installed drain covers, turning pavements into rapids and part of the High Street into a raging river.
It was a sense of déja-vu for Brian Howard of Marley Flowers who had only the day before fitted out his shop on the corner of High Street and West Street with new carpets costing nearly £3,000, following floods at the beginning of July.
"The water came rushing down from the top of the High Street, the cellars at the Comrades Club were close to flooding and it was six inches deep within seconds," said Mr Howard.
"I was like King Canute sweeping the water back out of the shop until we managed to get a board up in the front doors."
Staff successfully kept most of the water off the carpets which were in danger of being ruined for the second time in 12 weeks.
Mr Howard was counting his blessings that the rain this time had fallen in the morning, while the shop was open and not as before on a Saturday evening when the shop was closed for the weekend.
"We have been flooded about six times in the last four to five years.
"It is not the men who have done the work in the High Street who are to blame, it's the engineers who didn't get their calculations right," he declared.
Mr Howard wasn't taking any chances over the rest of the weekend, protecting the shop with a water board and sandbags when the shop was closed.
"You can't get away from the fact that we have been trying to tell people for four years and we clearly haven't been listened to," said Mr Howard, who believed the likelihood of flooding worsened when the pedestrian crossing was moved and the camber of the road altered.
But he was also philosophical about the flooding: "I keep thinking about the World Trade Center, and this is pretty minor stuff. Looking at that puts it into perspective."
Several other shops in town, including Boots and Nobbs in the High Street, and Concours Motors in West Street, all suffered from Saturday morning's flooding misery.
Water also came gushing into the museum where curator
Angela Gill and assistant curator Heather Perry were uckily on hand to clear away the excess water from the front entrance as the deluge raged down the High Street.
But there was little they could do but watch in horror as one of the newly installed drains lifted above a rising lake which had formed close to the new dropping-off point for disabled people.
Musuem chairman Bernard Coe told The Herald on Monday: "We were very disappointed as we understood the new road works had solved the problem but we are back to October last year all over again."
At Foster's bridge near Haslemere railway station, the road rapidly filled up with water and Haslemere firecrews were called out to help.
It presented what is becoming a familiar sight as one or two drivers who took the chance of getting through the rising floodwaters were forced to abandon their vehicles.
A Stagecoach bus, however, made it through, creating something of a tidal wave as it surged through the flood.
At the height of the sudden downpour the junction on Tanners Lane became virtually impassable and the outskirts of the town almost gridlocked with traffic.
Some drivers took the law into their own hands moving road closure signs and traffic cones at the top of the High Street to find a way out of town.
Long suffering traders, many of whom have stoically put up with a loss of customers and trade during the weeks of road works to solve the town's continuing flooding nightmare, on Saturday also faced the first of a two-week road closure to allow the High Street to be planed off and resurfaced following the roadworks.
And with the High Street almost completely deserted on Saturday morning, feelings were running high over the road works, the High Street closure and its associated problems.
Bob Cutting ,from the electrical shop Taylor and Roberts in West Street ,said he watched as water poured down West Street flooding Concours Motors opposite.
"The roadworks have been a fiasco from start to finish," he declared.
And he claimed: "There was no need to shut the road, it should have been resurfaced in the way other towns do it.
"It's laughable that we close the street so we don't have people queuing. We should have had traffic lights with alternating traffic flow."
Mr Cutting told The Herald that he considered it was "totally unnecessary" to close the High Street because of claims that the new road-surfacing machine was too wide to allow traffic flow.
"They managed to do West Street in two halves."
Trade, he said, during the eight weeks of work "had been very, very poor".
"All that has happened is that we have a new, smooth, shiny surface so the water can run off even quicker."
And he asked: "Who is going to pick up the bill for the money that has been wasted?"
Mr Cutting was also angry about the length of time building work had been going on opposite on the Charter Walk shops which have taken more than a year to complete and are not expected to be ready until next month.
"The road was finished last Friday and is till not even open - we have all got our hands tied," he said.
Sarah Miles from Cheesebox said the situation, including the current building works in West Street, was "a nightmare."
"The noise is absolutely horrendous and the general look of the place is just like being on a building site. West Street is full of diggers."
Martin Burt, from Miles, ironmongers in West Street said: "The flooding was very unfortunate for Brian Howard - I've never seen the pavements like it in the 40 years I have been in business."
He agreed that the roadworks were "a nightmare for trade".
"The road could be re-opened now. I can't even get deliveries," he declared.