Shock as Eastbourne families' homes flooded for the second time in less than 24 hours

Water from a burst mains gushed through people’s front doors and up through the floor in houses in Linden Close, Hampden Park, at around 11pm last night (Wednesday) – just hours after flooding that morning.

Hampden Park residents devastated as homes flooded by burst water pipe

Single mum Natalie Skeggs said, “I just can’t believe it, twice in one day. I really just don’t know what to do.

“I came downstairs, it was coming through my walls, through the front door. It came in so quickly.

“It’s left me with a huge dip in my kitchen floor where there was a puddle.”

She went on, “It was going everywhere, it was just horrific. It’s the worst one yet.

“We are just all in shock and devastated. What the hell is going on?”

She added that the fire brigade were quick to the scene and stayed to pump out the water and make electrics safe until at least 4am, “They were fantastic.”

This comes after another burst pipe left the same homes flooded just months ago, on June 21. Many residents were just recovering from this, with Tricia Stewart having new carpets and decor installed only to be ruined again.

She said, “It’s a lot worse this time. And we haven’t got a clue what’s going on with South East Water.

“We don’t know if it’s being looked into or if it’s going to happen again. We are all on pins. We’re stuck in limbo at the moment, nobody’s contacted us at all.”

She has now lost a new sofa, lap top, tumble dryer, and all the flooring downstairs needs to be replaced.

She said the water came up from under the kitchen tiles and has soaked all her kitchen units.

“We have asked for sand bags, if they did we might have been able to save our bits and pieces,” Tricia said.

South East Water’s distribution manager Andrew Davin said, “We are sorry to those customers who have been affected by bursts on our water pipe network in the Willingdon Trees area of Eastbourne which have happened during the past 48 hours.

“Our teams have been working through the night to carry out repairs and all our customers’ supplies should now have returned to normal.

“Our experts will remain on site today. We believe we have pinpointed the problem which caused the bursts and are working to resolve the complex issue on the network.”