The scene in Fornham All Saints, near Bury St Edmunds. Picture: Twitter

A CLEAN-up operation is today underway after torrential rains flooded the county as days of humidity erupted into heavy storms.

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Homes were flooded and roads closed as dramatic cloud bursts caused havoc across Suffolk yesterday.

Fire fighters were called after houses in Felixstowe Road and Campbell Road in Ipswich and Turing Court in Kesgrave were struck by lightning in the heavy storms, which hit the county around 4pm.

Train services between Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge were suspended around 4pm after the line became flooded at Kennett.

Bus services were provided by National Express East Anglia between the two towns and both lines re-opened just after 6pm.

Suffolk County Council drafted in extra crews from its highways team to help tackle the wake of the deluge as street drains struggled to cope with the massive volumes of water.

A lightning strike blew a hole in the roof of a home in Hasted Close, Bury around 4pm, causing damage to internal wiring.

A woman driver and a child had to be rescued from a car stuck in flood water in Newmarket Road in Risby at 3.40pm as thundery clouds opened on the county.

Residents in St Olaves Road, Eagle Walk, Rougham Road, Wigston Road and Ashwell Road in Bury all bore the brunt of heavy localised flash flooding.

Martin and Charlotte Adderley, of St Olaves Road in Bury, were stranded inside their home when flood water lapped through their front door.

Mr Adderley, 28, was forced to physically brace his front door to stop bow waves as drivers ploughed through flood water which had gathered outside his home.

“It was amazing how quickly it happened,” he said. “We could just see water rising and rising and it started lapping over the front door.

“We grabbed everything we could to save it.”

Mr Adderley thanked neighbours who grouped together to close the road themselves to help the couple, who were trapped in their home by the flood water.

“Everyone was just fantastic,” he said. “People came out of their doors and did everything they could to help.

“It just shows you that community does exist.”

A spokeswoman for the county council said the highways team were fully equipped to tackle the flash flooding.

“There are several properties where the road drains are just not coping with the water but they have got crews out who are helping residents to keep the water out of their properties,” she said yesterday.

“We have adequate crews and apparatus to deal with this situation and we haven’t had to call on the police of fire brigade.”

Motorists were forced to battle huge swathes of water as the region’s roads struggled to cope with the torrential rain.

The village of Westley was completely closed off from the A14 junction as a large collection of water on the slip road made the stretch impassable.

Villagers in Fornham All Saints had to wade through large floods as roads and drains struggle to cope with the cloud bursts.

Essex Fire and rescue Service were also called to tackle a series of incidents sparked by the heavy rain.

A quarter of a bungalow’s loft space was damaged by fire after lightning struck the property in Clacton Road, Little Oakley around 4.30pm.

A lightning strike on a pavement in Boston Avenue in Southend at 4.15pm set light to underground cabling.

Damage was also caused when lightning struck a 275kw pylon in Stebbing Hall Lane, Waltham Abbey.

In both cases crews stood by while electricity board engineers dealt with the incidents.

Some parts of west Suffolk received up to 30mm of rain in a very short space of time as several days of searing temperatures resulted in huge storms.

John Law, a forecaster for Weatherquest, said the thundery downpours were the result of the building humidity following the recent soaring temperatures, which reached 32C in parts of Suffolk on Monday.

The balmy conditions continued yesterday as temperatures hit 26C in eastern Suffolk yesterday, and a more sedate 20C the west of the county.

“The warm air helps generate the storms,” he said.

“It creates a large area of clouds which then get bigger and bigger and create a lot of energy and moisture which has to collapse and come through as showers.”

Although west Suffolk saw the first of yesterday’s dousing, heavy rain made its way across to the east of Suffolk over the evening.

But the worst of the thundery storms were expected to have passed by today, with temperatures expected to reach a more comfortable 18C or 19C.

“The worst of the heavy, thundery showers should have come across during yesterday evening but it should become dry as we reach the morning,” Mr Law said.