THOUSANDS of homes across the Felixstowe area were hit by a sudden loss of their water supplies at breakfast time today.

Families throughout the resort and the twin Trimley villages suddenly discovered taps and toilets had run dry.

Loos failed to fill up after flushing and taps were cut off, with the only water available from household storage tanks.

The water went off at just before 8am as everyone was getting ready to leave home for school and work.

Four schools were closed – Grange Primary, Causton Junior, Maidstone Infants and Orwell High – after staff were told that supplies might not be reconnected until 2pm.

Orwell High executive headteacher Rob Cawley said: “For health and hygiene reasons, we had to make an early decision.”

Anglian Water officials said 12,000 homes were affected but most people had water re-connected by 9am.

Ciaran Nelson, head of media at Anglian Water, said: “We had an electrical failure at a pumping station earlier this morning which left a lot of people without water.

“The failure has now been resolved and our engineers are now re-pressurising the main and getting the water back into the pipes.

“An incident like this just shows everyone how central water is to everything we do.”

The failure happened at the Spriteshall pumping station in Spriteshall Lane, Trimley St Mary, below the Trimley Water Tower.