STORMS hit the Five Valleys over the weekend battering houses and leaving drains struggling to cope with the torrent.

Thunder roared and lightning struck with devastating consequences for one family as a bolt hit their Hardwicke home in the early hours of Saturday morning.

No-one was hurt as the owners were holidaying when the roof of their house on Wharfdale Way was hit by a bolt of lightning.

Firefighters were called out at around 2.30am to cover the roof.

Fallen debris from the roof hit a nearby Honda Jazz.

As the aftermath unrolled drainage systems were pushed to the limit.

One unhappy resident on Saturday, Jane Leigh, of Merton Cottages, Shortwood said: “This is beyond a joke. The drains cannot cope with the volume of water when it rains, and I’ve been asking Severn Trent and Stroud District Council to do something for years, ever since we were flooded back in 1999.

“Today I’ve had water coming into the house, over our hard standing and out through the sides of that, and there is no help available.”

Severn Trent’s Mark Garth said: “ We have teams out and about looking for and fixing leaks twenty four hours a day.