Homes were deluged and rivers shored up with sandbags today as torrential rain triggered floods across Sussex.

A severe flood warning was put on the river Cuckmere at Hellingly with warnings also on place on stretches of the rivers Uck, Brede, Rother, Tillingham and Ouse.

Drivers faced chaos with many roads in East and West Sussex only passable with difficulty. The A27, A22 and A26 were all affected.

The worst-hit area was Hellingly, near Hailsham, which was virtually cut off by flood waters.

And an emergency repair team was rushed to Lewes when a section of wall beside the swollen River Ouse threatened to give way.

Workmen reinforced the wall with sandbags amid fears there could be renewed flooding in the town as the river level rose.

The Environment Agency said people in Patcham should also be on their guard in the next two or three days as water levels in the underground river there continued to rise.

The agency said 41mm (1.6in) of rain fell overnight in the Ouse catchment, with another 10mm expected this afternoon, and river levels were likely to continue rising for the next few days.

In Hellingly - where many residents have still not been able to move back into their homes after October's floods - water ran up to 6ft deep.

Clare Hastings, of Station Road, said: "I haven't moved back into the house since the October when the whole ground floor was completely devastated.

"I was on my way here anyway this morning to see some people and the floods just got worse and worse as I got near the village."

Neighbours were barricading doors with sandbags to stem the floods.

Another resident said: "This morning I had to carry my three children out of the house so they could get to school without getting wet.

"My two dogs and cat are upstairs in the house and the ground floor is flooded. I am just really cross because it had only just dried out after the last floods."

One of the worst affected buildings was the Hellingly Vicarage, still gutted from the October floods and one of the first to be submerged this morning.

The Rev Ronald Chatwin, vicar of Hellingly, said: "It is pretty grim in the vicarage at the moment. There are no floorboards because they haven't been put back since the last flood.

"It's going to take a couple of long dry summers before memories of this winter recede."

Rupert Clubb, the Environment Agency's flood defence manager in Sussex, said exceptionally high tides during the weekend coupled with more rain predicted for Saturday could cause problems.

He said: "We have still got a bit of rain to come, although not quite as intense as it has been.

"We have a forecast for a dry day tomorrow, which is good news, then between ten and 15 millimetres on Saturday night."

East Sussex Fire Brigade called an inshore lifeboat to evacuate 20 people from 50 flood-hit homes in Pett, near Hastings, which were under a metre of water.

A woman was taken to the Conquest Hospital in Hastings suffering from the effects of the cold.

Firefighters also helped evacuate homes in Halland after a pond overflowed.