Video/gallery: Next at Martlesham closes and roads left submerged after heavy rainfall overnight and throughout the day

When we visited the The Next store at Martlesham this afternoon at 4pm it was closed due to the torrential rain we have had - Janice Poulson

Travellers using the county’s roads have been advised by Suffolk Police to take care after 40 reports of flooding or standing water.

Flooding in Fore Street, Ipswich (Image: Archant)

Motorists were confronted with substantial floods on the A14 at Rougham and Stowmarket, Dobbs Lane in Kesgrave, Foxhall, Rushmere St Andrew and Bury St Edmunds.

A lane of the Wherstead strand flooded on Tuesday, 27 May.

Over 31mm of rain fell at Wattisham weather station over the night and a yellow weather warning from the Met Office remains in place for the county.

Ipswich saw its fair share of the wet weather with flooding on the Yarmouth Road, Tuddenham Road, Fore Street, Bramford Road, Warwick Road and Henley Road.

Chief Inspector Chris Spinks, head of the joint Roads Policing Unit for Norfolk and Suffolk Police, said: “Motorists should drive to the conditions and allow extra time for their journeys home.

“Standing water and heavy rainfall makes driving conditions hazardous and I would urge motorists to reduce speed, use headlights and increase the distance between you and the car in front.”

As members of the public have gone about their day, many have posted pictures online of cars travelling along roads with their wheels covered by the water.

Other pictures showed severe flooding at retail centres including the Martlesham Heath Retail Park.

Nathaniel Coughlin, general manager at Isaacs on the Quay in Ipswich described the rain this morning as “biblical” and said he couldn’t recall such heavy rain since he’d been working there.

“It caused most of the effects to the gentlemen who work in the cellars early in the morning,” he said. “They work the two hours between 5am and 7am and they said it was just constant rain at that time. It also caused our drains to flood ever so slightly but we’ve got a good system there so it wasn’t a problem.”

Businesses too were affected by the deluge. The Princes Street branch of Barclays Bank in Ipswich has been closed all day due to rainwater damage to the bank’s interior.

Staff outside the bank informed customers that a pipe had burst.

Terry Staff, community leader for Barclays in Suffolk, said: “There has been extensive rainwater damage to the branch over the weekend.

“Our contractors are on site assessing the damage and we are hoping to reopen on Wednesday.

“We have staff outside the branch advising customers on their options which include using the post office in Tower Ramparts and we have extra staff at our branch at Woodbridge Road.

“We will do everything we can to reopen as soon as possible and I apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused.”

More heavy rain is expected for tonight.