SEVERAL businesses and residential streets were today beginning a mopping up operation after bucketing rainfall deluged much of Suffolk yesterday.Three quarters of an inch of rain fell in Ipswich between 8am yesterday and 8am today.

SEVERAL businesses and residential streets were today beginning a mopping up operation after bucketing rainfall deluged much of Suffolk yesterday.

Three quarters of an inch of rain fell in Ipswich between 8am yesterday and 8am today. The heavy rain comes after a six-week dry period throughout August and September.

The worst effected areas were in the north of the county, particularly Lowestoft, although parts of Woodbridge were hit.

Suffolk fire service received 225 calls from worried residents between 4.30pm and midnight as water levels swelled. They sent out 19 appliances to pump away water.

Sheila Ford, landlady of the Cherry Tree Inn, on Cumberland Street, Woodbridge, said that over four inches of rain had seeped under the front and back doors of the pub at around 5.30pm yesterday.

She said: "We had the fire service here to pump it out. It was building up outside and then the doors just couldn't cope and it all came in."

She is today starting the clean up operation and expects that she will have to replace all her carpets.

Shottisham, near Woodbridge, was also hit by a freak whirlwind at about 5pm which ripped roof tiles from houses, tore up trees and knocked a chimney clean off a cottage. Power in the cottage was cut for three and a half hours.

Today, as the mopping up began, Evening Star weatherman Ken Blowers forecasted more rain to come as the weekend approaches.

"The outlook is very changeable. The chief thing coming at the weekend is the fact that it's going to get colder and colder and there could even be some frost.

There will be cold winds coming down from the north.

"This has come after six weeks of chiefly dry weather and there is some more rain on the way today after dark."

October has been one of the wettest months of the year, with 2.52 inches of rain falling already. This is compared to the 60-year October average of 2.30 inches.

Mr Blowers said: "It was all caused by a depression which moved north east across England and it is now going out of the way into the North Sea, leaving us a cold air stream.

"North of East Anglia had it far, far worse than we did down here, particularly in Lowestoft where the streets were flooded. But the Ipswich area was badly hit as well; three quarters of an inch of rainfall in such a short time is an awful lot."

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