ROADS turned into rivers, water poured towards residents front doors and a store was forced to close as Exmouth was scene to treacherous weather last weekend. The town, like most of Devon, witnessed an endless stretch of heavy rain on Saturday. The weath

ROADS turned into rivers, water poured towards residents' front doors and a store was forced to close as Exmouth was scene to treacherous weather last weekend.

The town, like most of Devon, witnessed an endless stretch of heavy rain on Saturday.

The weather was a contrast to the glorious sunny conditions experienced during the Exmouth festival two weeks ago.

Ann Prior, of Egremont Road, said the constant rain resulted in water building up and reaching steps near her home.

She believed the reason for this happening was largely because of the poor maintenance of drains in the area.

"Part of the problem is vehicles parked in awkward places so when people come to clean the drains they are not accessible," she added.

More than 1,500 properties in Devon suffered a power cut and a spokesperson for Sommerfield's in Magnolia Walk Exmouth said the store had to close on Saturday because the shop floor flooded.

A number of cars in the area were also trapped by flood water.

Meteorologists said the bad weather was brought about after an area of high pressure moved towards Iceland, leaving most of the country on the edge of a jet stream.

A spokesperson for Devon County Council said: "The torrential rainfall on Saturday did cause some localised short term flooding in Exmouth.

"This is usually associated with short duration, high intensity storms outstripping the capacity of the drainage system itself.

"Temporary retention of water on the road will unfortunately occur during these storms.

"The situation was further exasperated by the high tide in some areas in the evening. However, in the majority of cases the excess water drained away within a few hours.