PETERSFIELD traders were counting the cost this week of the spectacular storm which lashed through the town on Sunday night. Shopkeepers arrived on Monday morning to find pools of water on shop floors, carpets ruined and cellars flooded. Torrential rain flooded roads and swept into shops throughout the centre of Petersfield between 9 pm and 11 pm on Sunday . Rescue workers were hampered by driving rain, thunder and lightning which flashed overhead. Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service received more than 100 emergency calls at the height of the storm . A spokesman said one of the worst hit areas of the county was Petersfield, along with Havant, Emsworth and Portsmouth. Chris Jenner, leading firefighter at Petersfield Fire Station, told The Herald firefighters were inundated with calls when automatic fire alarms were set off by the storm. He said many of the town's roads were under quickly under inches of water. Winchester Road flooded opposite Beckham Lane, parts of Pulens Lane disappeared under torrential rain and Sussex Road was affected between Dragon Street and The Heath. Mr Jenner said: "I have never known anything like it, so much rainwater fell in such a short space of time and all the time there was sheet and fork lightning. It was almost surreal. I felt as if I was working in a horror movie with crashing thunder and incredible bolts of lightning." A Petersfield resident who was returning home at the time of the storm said: "All the routes I tried were blocked with floodwater, and at one point I thought I was going to be stranded. There was no way through French-man's Road or Heath Road. The junction from Station Road to Tor Way was completely flooded, and in the end I had to make a major detour to get home. They were appalling driving conditions, the car was aquaplaning and at times I was really quite scared." Just after 9 pm rainwater cascaded into The Drum pub in Chapel Street. Staff managed to track down specialist equipment on Sunday night to soak up the water, which had saturated carpets in the pub. Staff at Woolworths in Petersfield High Street called on neighbouring businesses for extra mops and buckets when they arrived to find pools of water on the shop floor at the back of the store. But a spokesman said they were able to open the shop just after 8-30 am and there was no damage to any stock. Next door at Boots staff arrived to find a large mystery puddle close to the front of the store. Manager Neil Flew told The Herald: "We don't know where the water came from because the mats inside the front door were completely dry and the roof was unaffected. It was a bit of a mystery, but the water was quickly mopped up and we opened as usual. Nothing was damaged." At Age of Elegance in Chapel Street the cellar was flooded and water poured through the roof, causing damage to £120-worth of gift bags on sale below. Manager Sara Fincham told The Herald: "It took four hours to pump out the cellar. Last December we had to call the fire brigade because of flooding, and since then we have had an automatic pump, so it wasn't quite as bad this time." She said: "The flat roof and the gutters could not cope with the sheer volume of water and it came through the ceiling." And at One Tree Books in Lavant Street, owner Tim O'Kelly said the coffee bar at the back of the store was closed on Monday after water poured through the back door. "The carpet is soaked and we had to move books from the bottom shelves," he said. Met Office gauges measured up to 30 mm of rain in some areas around Petersfield, but experts said it was the heavy downfalls in a short amount of time which caused flooding. Ken Li, owner of the Tai Tong Chinese Restaurant, said his cellar had also flooded during the dramatic Sunday night storm. He blamed uneven paving stones outside his business for the flood. Mr Li told The Herald that many shopkeepers in Chapel Street had complained to East Hampshire District Council that the paving stones needed to be relaid. "But they just won't listen," he claimed. At Petersfield Photographic, on the corner of Chapel and Lavant streets, manager Kate Collyer said work to raise the floor, undertaken five years ago, had saved the store from damage. "This was one of the worst-hit shops for flooding, so when we moved here we raised the whole floor to try and avoid the damage it causes, and it has paid off," she said. A spokesman for the Met Office said: "I believe there was over an inch of rainfall in some areas around Petersfield, but it could well have been more in places where we don't have weather gauges. "But on Sunday it was probably the very heavy rainfall in a short amount of time which caused the flooding. "The storm was a result of a combination of things. A line of thunderstorms sliding north east up through Hampshire met the warmer weather in the south east. This led to lots of heavy rainfall. "A lot of the lightning was 'cloud to cloud', which tends to look much more spectacular than isolated storms." l A LISS man has slammed drainage facilities in the village in the wake of Sunday night's dramatic storm. Sid Cann described Huntsbottom Road, where he normally walks his dog, as resembling a "war zone". He said hi-tech drains in the area had failed in their primary task - to deal with floodwater. Now the road is covered in a thick layer of mud after the water drained away into a resident's garden. He said: "It looks like a muddy war zone. The water had come from two lanes and dragged dirt along with it. "Supposedly there are deep drains there. But it's not the first time this has happened. These drains cost a few hundred grand."
