Lewes shopkeepers whose businesses have been devastated by flooding spoke today of their "desperation" to get back into their properties and begin cleaning up.

Dozens of businesses in Cliffe High Street remained under 2ft of water today.

Pauline Divall, 37, general manager of Forfars Bakery, said: "We've come down here today to see if we can get in and start getting back to normal but it does not look as if we're going to be able to get in.

"We're desperate to see what damage has been done. I think it will be a while before we're operating again.

"We've just had the shop refitted - it cost about £70,000 but now it's all ruined."

Fishmonger Lee Webster, 28, who runs Terry's Fisheries in Cliffe High Street, said: "At about one o'clock yesterday a lady from the Environment Agency came and told us the river was about to go and that we should get out.

"We got everything as high as we could in the shop and left.

"We just hoped the water wouldn't come but it did. We've come down to see if we can start clearing up. We need to get in as quickly as we can."

Kevin Richardson, 36, a brewery house hand at Harveys Brewery, said: "We're desperate to get up and running again.

"Once the water's gone away we'll all muck in to get things back to normal.

"I was working in the brewery when the river burst.

"If it was not for the RNLI crews that got us out we would have had to have climbed on to the roof and waited to be airlifted out. It was fairly scary. There are still some barrels inside that hopefully will be OK."

The brewery, founded in the 1790s, had to be completely refurbished five years ago after being devastated by fire.