ON what should have been one of the busiest shopping days before Christmas, shops and homes were underwater as floods struck yet again.

The Met Office issued severe weather warnings and flooding began on Saturday. Natasha Heard, manager of Cancer Research UK in Bridge Street, said: 'I got to work on Saturday and we had been flooded again – luckily not as bad as last time as we had sand bags.

'By 11am the street was a river. It came up really quickly and went away fairly quickly as well.

'The water was on the pavements but subsided before it actually got to our shop. Half an hour later it was gone, but it left mud everywhere.'

Postmen were stuck at the Kingsbridge depot as they watched the water level rise and police diverted traffic.

'Other businesses in the area closed their doors and, as the water levels dropped again, it was action stations for everyone with post being delivered and traders starting a mass clean up.

Natasha added: 'I know we were all hoping for a good day's takings but we managed to reopen and make some money in the afternoon.'

It was not only businesses that were affected. A woman was rescued from her home in Church Street in Kingsbridge, at 3.40am on Saturday morning.

Paul Adams, from West Alvington, said: 'My wife and I had planned to go to Plymouth for Christmas shopping early on Saturday morning but could not get anywhere.

'We drove down the A379 and there was a road closure at Aveton Gifford, so we turned to go another route via Ermington and found that that road was closed too.

'We stopped in a nearby village and waited until about midday, by which time most of the excess water had cleared.

'But a journey that should have taken about an hour took about half a day.'

Other areas of Kingsbridge that were underwater included Mill Street, the bottom of Duncombe Street, Prince of Wales Road, Waterloo Place, Church Close, Derby Road and Church Street.

Outside Kingsbridge, Aveton Gifford saw some properties flooded resulting in a small number of evacuations and Fore Street was partially blocked because of a landslip.

Fire crews assisted home owners with flooding inside their properties ranging from five inches to three foot.

Traffic lights were in place near Fir Tree garage on the A397 because of a wall collapse.

Other areas affected by flooding included Modbury, Torcross, Goveton, Soar near Malborough, the A379 between New Bridge and West Charleton, Sherford and Frogmore.

The Environment Agency urged communities across South West England to remain vigilant, as further heavy rainfall was expected.

Figures show that around 400 properties have flooded since Wednesday, December 19, and the Environment Agency has sent over 110,000 warnings to people at risk of flooding.

Flood alerts were in place for the rivers Avon, Erme and Harbourne and coastal streams from Bigbury to Dartmouth, and Kingsbridge, South Brent and Ivybridge areas.

The EA said: 'River levels across Devon are very high following rainfall last Saturday. Although rain cleared the Devon area in the early hours of Sunday morning, rivers are likely to remain high.'

The MET office said that some areas have exceeded their full-month December average since the 19th – including Plymouth, which saw 128.8mm of rain compared to a December average of 118.8 mm.

The Met Office also stated that 2012 is currently the 13th wettest on record and may well finish in the top five once the second half of December is added to the final total.