A MOTHER-OF-TWO has been left a “nervous wreck” after torrential rain mixed with sewage and gutted the bottom floor of her family home last week.

Jane Marsden’s house, on Cambridge Road in Hitchin, flooded in the early hours of Thursday, August 26, when rainwater overflowed the drains near her home.

She said: “It still smells of sewage and the floors are all damaged.

“It’s all the stuff that came out the drains and it’s not been pleasant.

“All I have done is clean, I have washed the floors three times, they’re clean but they still smell.”

Mrs Marsden was staying with her partner when she got a call from her children to say that their house was taking on water and she rushed back.

That area of the town is prone to flooding because of a nearby hill that forces water towards homes which are situated near a number of drains.

She said: “I got a call at two in the morning and I thought the water would just be in the drive like before.

“I just walked in the house and then walked back out and started crying.”

Mrs Marsden and her two children, Kaleigh and Matthew, tried to stem the deluge by barricading their home but to no avail.

The fire brigade were called and arrived at 2.05am but they could do nothing to stop the flooding and left 40 minutes later.

All of the downstairs rooms in the house were affected, with the water a foot deep in places, and the incident has left Mrs Marsden traumatised.

She said: “There’s no way of preventing this unless the council do something.

“I feel that the council should do something for me because I’m a nervous wreck.

“I have now become paranoid because I don’t know what I’m going to come home to.”

“It’s going to happen to me all the time unless they do something.”

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: “We are sorry to hear about this incident.

“There has been exceptionally heavy rainfall in the last week, and the sheer volume of water has inevitably caused flash flooding in certain areas.

“We were called out to flooding on Cambridge Road on Thursday August 26.

“When we arrived on site at 7.27am, we put up flood warning signs to alert drivers although the flood water was already receding from the road.

“We are going out to Cambridge Road today to check for any blocked drains and will clear them if needed.

“The drains in the road are also due for their annual clearing later this year.”