Washed out after torrent

It was 6.30pm on Tuesday, July 4, 2006, when the skies darkened. were cooking tea as it started to rain "like stair rods" and hail like "the sky was falling in".

"I was on the phone but I could not hear the person I was talking to," says Adrian of the night two freak thunderstorms collided over the Shropshire village of Albrighton and flooded out around 70 homes.

"It was thundering and lightning and it was quite beautiful at times to watch," adds Janet, aware of the irony of her words.

That was before a river began gushing down the drive towards their house. Two hours later their shoes were floating across the living room. In vain they began frantically bailing water out of their bungalow.

Then the sewage came back at them from the drains and they were knee-high in infected water.

"We were drowning ducks," says Adrian. "The only things we saved were the television and the computer. Everything else went. You panic because you are losing personal possessions Ñ you cannot save it. This is a bungalow so there's nowhere to put anything.

"I realised I had lost the plot when it got to 1am and I was still going round with a torch and I thought I would light the woodburner to dry the house out."

By now Janet was being cared for by neighbours who had come to the rescue.

She says: "I was in tears but I still thought that by the Wednesday morning I would be able to move back in."

However it would be almost a year before they would get their home back as the mop-up operation turned out to be more stressful than the flooding disaster itself.

For four weeks the couple lived in a single room at the Park House Hotel in Shifnal. "I was wearing odd socks or Jan's socks," says Adrian. And for the next 10 months they lived in rented accommodation in Chesterton, making visits to see their own furniture at a lock-up and making regular trips to check on progress at their home.

"It was so distressing to see our belongings in a skip, it was as if our life had been thrown away," says Janet who claims very little progress was being made in getting things straight.

"I had just finished an MBA and my reference books had all gone. I've got a lot of shoes - I had over 60 pairs - and the loss adjusters said 'surely you know how many you've got'.

"They had gathered the shoes up and put them on a table. It was a hot summer and they were full of sewage and all the toes had turned up and cracked.

"The stench was horrendous."

Christmas came and went and still their house was uninhabitable as cleaning contractors continued their attempt to put the house right.

Janet had only just recovered after months of being laid up with a serious liver virus, but now the whole episode was now affecting their minds as well.

Every spare moment was spent trying to get to the bottom of why remedial work though contractors to their insurance company seemed to have all but stopped.

"We did get depressed and I was on a short fuse," Adrian admits. They began looking for ways to escape the stress of losing their biggest single investment. Jan, an IT manager, and Adrian, who works at RAF Cosford, were told by their bosses to take as much time off as they wanted.

Yet both were back at their desks within three days.

Adrian and Janet moved back into the bungalow around four months ago, but the place does not feel like home. Everything is brand new but it simply doesn't feel the same as it was.

"We have been together for 18 years and in that time we had built this home up, but you cannot put it back together in 12 months," says Jan.

"We had decorated the place," adds Adrian. "I may not have done a very good job but I had done it.

"We were frustrated that they were asking us what colour do you want your walls. We ended up with magnolia everywhere because we could not decide."

The experience has divided their attitude towards personal belongings: Adrian now avoids amassing anything, while Janet is quick to surround herself with possessions.

"My philosophy now is minimalist," explains Adrian. "I don't want anything because I don't want to lose it."

Janet adds: "I just want everything Ñ to build my nest. It's the opposite."

More than 12 months after the floods struck, Adrian and Janet realise they might never get back to normal while they are still under this roof. The experience has affected them more profoundly than even they thought.

The bungalow, with its brand new carpets and freshly decorated walls and new furniture, looks and feels like a show home.

A mirror lies against the wall because they can't decide where to put it. Sandbags still lie at the top of the driveway.

"I'm not sure if we want to stay here," says Adrian. "I've come back home and it does not feel like home. It's not ours. The whole thing does not feel like ours.

"I did say I wish it had been a fire. That way it's gone and you draw a line under it."

"People say 'isn't it wonderful that you've got everything now'," says Janet. "But no it isn't."

When last summer's storms struck there had been a problem with the rain water running into the sewage drains, a problem which has now been rectified. In theory they should never be flooded out again, but with freak storms becoming increasingly common, Janet is on red alert at the sight of the first drop of rain.

"As soon as it rains at night I get up to have a look out of the window Ñ are the sandbags in place?" she says.