One year ago, the rain started to fall and the nightmare

began for Gloucestershire.

Just after lunchtime on Friday, July 20, a female member of

staff in a Moreton-on- Marsh bank was heard sighing, worried

her newly- permed hair for a party that night would be

ruined.

A dog walker in Cheltenham scurried for cover thinking of

his wife's anger if his dog left muddy footprints on the

carpet.

And in Tewkesbury, smokers outside a pub hurriedly took

their last drag before returning to the bar as the heavens

opened.

This was July, after all. It would only be a shower – except

it wasn't. It just kept falling and falling.

All too soon the local news and radio stations were

reporting flooding on rural roads – and then the M5 and M50

came to a virtual standstill.

Hours later, four emergency centres had been set up across

Gloucestershire to deal with people left stranded by the

floodwaters and the emergency services were called out to deal

with almost 1,000 incidents in a four-hour period.

I was walking down the street wearing my husband's trunks

flood victim Hannah Pain

Even now, 12 months on from the deluge, more than 500

families across Gloucestershire are still unable to return to

their flood-damaged homes.

Tewkesbury residents Rachel and Will Lennon and their

two-year-old son, Finn, are still not back in their Abbey

Terrace home.

Mrs Lennon said: “We had to battle back through the traffic

for about six hours just to get home and then when we did the

real problems started to kick in.

“Including the cellar, we had 10ft of water come in.

Everything downstairs was destroyed.

“There was a real sense of disbelief. It was like it was

happening to someone else – almost like an out-of-body

experience.”

Now the couple's insurance premium has doubled, from £600 to

nearly £1,200, and their flooding excess has increased from £50

to £20,000.

Gloucester residents Hannah and Jonathan Pain moved back to

their home in Cyprus Gardens just two weeks ago.

“The whole thing is a blur,” Mrs Pain, 30, said.

“I remember being very wet and very cold and people laughing

at me because I was walking down the street wearing my

husband's swimming trunks and pulling a suitcase. They didn't

know what we had just been through.

“We had about three feet of water in the house and outside

in the street it was up to armpit level.

“I remember seeing my beloved Mini on the news stuck in the

water.

“It is a complete feeling of disbelief. You think 'when will

I wake up? This can't be happening to me'.”

Retired dental surgery receptionist Jane Graham, 68, was one

of many living in Canterbury Leys, Tewkesbury, who were among

the worst hit.

She said: “I remember stepping into the water as I climbed

out of bed at 6am.

“Many of us could not get out of our houses for four days

because the water was so high in the streets but my friend was

sending me emergency food parcels on a dinghy that someone had

managed to get hold of.”

Businesses also suffered.

Cherry Mason, landlady of the Red Lion in Norton, said:

“When the water first came over we had to move all the

caravans.

“We were working for 48 hours and had only two hours of

sleep in that time. It was gruelling.”

And tourist haven Painswick, although not badly flooded,

became a virtual ghost town after a landslide on the A46 which

was caused by the deluge.

Soon afterwards, several schools were closed.

In particular, St David's Primary School in Moreton-in-Marsh

suffered, needing £2 million of repairs.

As well as problematic roads, the crisis also crippled the

rail network around Gloucester and Cheltenham.

Tewkesbury had become a virtual island with dinghies and

helicopters needed to transport people to safety.

Residents and businesses in areas such as nearby Cheltenham

breathed a sigh of relief as they escaped the very worst of the

floods – but it was short lived.

For them the ordeal was just beginning.

For 14 days, much of the county went without water as the

Mythe Water Treatment works, near Tewkesbury, was forced to

close down because of the rising waters.

The lack of water led to panic buying and there were reports

of scuffles at some supermarkets.

This was 2007 – people did not expect to be unable to

shower, unable to wash and unable to cook.

Gloucestershire police were quick to admit they faced the

biggest emergency since the end of World War II.

Chief constable Dr Tim Brain set up Gold Command to take

control of the operation and enlisted the help of the Army. In

the end, only a superhuman effort prevented water being denied

far longer.

Had the water risen a few extra inches above the hastily

erected flood barrier at Mythe, which is owned by Severn Trent,

then the chaos would have escalated.

It was a similar story at Walham electricity plant with

500,000 homes in Gloucester, Stroud and Cheltenham at risk of

losing electricity.

If electricity as well as water went, residents would be

plunged into darkness with the elderly and disabled left

particularly vulnerable.

With disaster averted, Severn Trent dispatched 165 bowsers

to ensure residents had access to fresh water, while the Army

distributed millions of bottles of water from a base at

Cheltenham racecourse. But despite this effort, stories emerged

that nobody in the emergency services really knew who was in

control – there was no lead agency.

The extent of the flooding in Gloucestershire makes it easy

to forget the extent that the rest of the West was

affected.

In Wiltshire large parts of the county struggled to cope as

six months of rain fell in four hours. Swindon ground to a halt

as roads flooded.

There were chaotic scenes at Bristol Temple Meads station as

train companies cancelled services to flood areas.

In Herefordshire, many villages and the market town of

Bromyard were virtually cut off.