When Gloucestershire was hit by flash flooding after heavy rainfall on Friday 20 July 2007, the result was catastrophic. Roads were blocked and cars left abandoned in towns and villages around the county. After floodwater overwhelmed the Mythe pumping plant near the normally peaceful town of Tewkesbury, 350,000 people were left without running water and electricity supplies, while hundreds of homes and businesses were wrecked by the floodwater.

Included here are vivid accounts of evacuation and helicopter rescues by the RAF (their largest peacetime rescue operation to date), bowsers, bottled water and, of course, the gruelling clean-up operation. As the police, Environment Agency, emergency services and the military joined forces to deal with the crisis and subsequent water shortage, contributors to this book also recall tales of community camaraderie and acts of bravery by ordinary people.