I posted the comment saying things were substantially back to normal - and indeed they are in the Byes and all over the town. Obviously farmland is still quite wet. There has been little rain since Saturday and little is forecast, so things should dry out in plenty of time.

I cycled down to town on the Sunday (day after the floods) and apart from a few piles of twigs and a couple of trees down, and a little mud in places, the Byes were much as normal. The Sid rises very fast and goes down very quickly too. Local people have been amazed at low little lasting damage has been done. Fortunately the EA dredged the Sid at Sidford a few weeks ago - this helped limit damage in the village.

Land around the River Otter will take longer to recover - the river is much slower to rise and fall.

Most of the water on roads in Sidmouth (see videos) was simply run-off from fields and gardens, not water spilling over from the river.

I am happy to report one of my pics made MSN webpage!

might still be posted as pic number 9

A selection of my photos are on this webpage (Sidford Bridge area) with links to some of the better youtube material - more will be added later.

photos of Sidford floods and links to youtube around Sidmouth

In contrast to several places in Dorset, Sidmouth suffered virtually no property damage. One large brick wall was demolished near the Ford.

East Devon Council were busy on the Sunday (on double time?) cleaning roads including my own with pressure washers and large vacuum tankers. They even cleaned driveways for some residents!

However, on the Monday (yesterday) two days after the floods I had water through my lounge ceiling owing to a cracked cistern in the roofspace - coincidence or what??