TORRENTIAL rain left several villages almost isolated on Christmas Day.
More than 30mm of rain fell in less than 24 hours, causing the River Mole to burst its banks.
Parts of Leigh, Betchworth and Brockham were cut off after torrents of muddy water submerged roads following thunder, hail and heavy rain throughout the morning.
The Flanchford Bridge area at Leigh and Old School Lane in Brockham were badly hit and became impassable to all but the bravest 4x4 drivers by noon.
Many drivers setting off to join family members for Christmas dinner were forced to find alternative routes to avoid the floods.
The Advertiser's weatherman, Ian Currie, said there had been an "incredible" amount of rain before and after dawn on Christmas Day.
"By mid-morning there had been more than 30mm in 24 hours; about two weeks' normal rain," he said. "We have had more than 1,000mm of rain in 2012, making it the wettest year for a decade and one of the wettest in the past century."
Hundreds of acres of meadowland were flooded along the course of the Mole, and fields alongside the A25 at Betchworth and Brockham were so waterlogged after weeks of heavy rain that the fresh downpours simply poured off the surface and formed lakes on the main road.
Sandbags and breeze-blocks were used to keep water away from houses in Pursers Lane, Peaslake, on Christmas Day.
Firefighters spent four hours pumping water from foundations to prevent the interiors of four cottages from being damaged, while residents including Margaret and John Bragg, both 74, spent much of the day digging new drainage channels to help water drain from the road into a ditch.
Tim Hall, county councillor for Leatherhead and Fetcham East, said: "We didn't have a very good Christmas morning; Fetcham suffered its worst flooding in years.
"We had flooding and drainage challenges all over the patch. The trouble is we're now getting problems in places we didn't know we had problems.
"The Scout hut at Fetcham was under two to three inches of water, for instance, and the car park was a foot deep. But where we have tackled it, like the bottom of River Lane and Lower Road, was all clear. We will be reviewing things with Thames Water again in January."
There were further downpours on Boxing Day and in the following days leading up to New Year's Eve and standing water remained on many roads.
