AN overnight deluge left a Forest of Dean village under 3ft of water as flooding wreaked havoc across the county.
Relentless rain throughout Saturday night left businesses, homes and cars submerged in Upper Lydbrook.
Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue were scrambled to the scene at 8am yesterday and 10 people had to be rescued by raft as the main road was transformed into a river.
At the Jovial Colliers Inn water levels reached waist height.
Jamie Woods, who lives there and whose parents run the pub, said: "We went to bed and there was about a foot of water, then I came down on Sunday morning and it was around my waist."
Forest of Dean district councillor Bruce Hogan (L, Lydbrook and Ruardean) lives in the village.
He said: "The road was like a brook, it was grim. The water level just kept rising and rising by about an inch every 10 minutes. I've never seen anything like it before."
A high volume pump and a 2km hose was used to pump the water into the River Wye.
Chief fire officer in Gloucestershire, Jon Hall, said: "The water diverted from its normal course and spilled into a half mile section of the road.
"We are expecting more rain but we don't anticipate anything catastrophic happening, it will be manageable."
The drama unfolded after 32mm of rain fell in Gloucestershire between 10am on Saturday and 2am yesterday.
So far this month the county has had 168mm of rain, the wettest month since November 2009, when there was 238mm.
Elsewhere in the county Lobleys Drive in Gloucester was again flooded, the Ebley Bypass was closed, two horses were stuck in flood water in a field by St Oswald's, landslips occurred in Drybrook and Wotton-under-Edge, while Chalford was badly hit too.
Sarah Pullen, managing director of Gloucestershire Media, lives in the Stroud village where three homes were flooded.
She said: "I have never seen it so bad, the water was so high. People were out of their houses helping each other."
Weather expert Ian Thomas has predicted more rain to come too, while authorities have put dozens of weather and flood warnings in place.
