Residents found themselves marooned this morning as floods left their homes swamped.

One of the worst hit areas was at Ditchling Road, Wivelsfield between the Royal Oak pub and Baldocks Garage.

Several homes were marooned by flood water which covered their driveways.

Ditchling Road resident Kim Surtees said: "My sun room is under more than an inch of water and the back garden is under water.

"There is a stream running behind house just across the road which doesn't help."

The main road between Ditchling and Haywards Heath was turned into a miniature lake and there were severe traffic delays as cars barely managed to plough through the water.

At Hassocks the main shopping street in Keymer Road was deluged. At Hickmans Lane, Lindfield, which is regularly hit by flooding from a nearby stream, residents had sandbags at the ready to stem the tide as water rose in a nearby culvert.

America Lane in Haywards Heath was hit by thunderstorms and flooding and drivers were only just able to squeeze through deep puddles in Rocky Lane.

Half of Janes Lane in Burgess Hill was blocked by flooding last night and there were traffic problems near Wivelsfield station, where part of the road was under water.

Homes at Clayton and Hassocks lost power supplies early last night. A Seeboard spokeswoman said the problem was caused by the rain.

She added: "Our crews are out everywhere. We can only apologise to people and we will try to get to them as soon as we can."

At Crawley, fire crews' attempts to answer flood calls were hindered by thunderstorms triggering off alarms.

A spokesman said: "They have been out all night but it hasn't just been flood calls."

Parts of the A23 near Broadfield Stadium were flooded during the night. The one-way system near Muster Green in Haywards Heath was another trouble spot.

Part of the main Ardingly to Lindfield Road was flooded at Lywood Common.

Railtrack expected problems on the main Brighton-London line, caused by flooding in a tunnel at Haywards Heath, to get worse before they got better.

Schools forced to close were Downlands at Hassocks, St Peter's Primary in Ardingly, Lindfield Primary School, Twineham Primary School, St Paul's RC at Haywards Heath and Oakmeeds at Burgess Hill.

At Broadbridge Heath, near Horsham, the primary school closed four infant classes, although the rest of the school was open.

The A29 between Bognor and Billingshurst was also flooded.