Rain brought chaos yesterday as homes, roads and a railway station car park were flooded.
Residents of Market Harborough and Loughborough suffered the worst as more than an inch of rain fell during the day.
Fourteen homes were flooded in Market Harborough and the station car park was under over a foot of water.
In Stockerston, near Uppingham, a couple had to be rescued from their car after they became stuck on a flooded road at 2.30pm.
Loughborough University students Liam Mumford and Rob Harris, who live in Robin Mews, in the town, had between two and three inches of water in their house.
Liam, 20, said: "The whole street was like a river and if it hadn't stopped when it did the water would have reached our plug sockets.
"Luckily, we don't have too much stuff downstairs."
Rob, 20, escaped out of the window of the house to rescue his car from the water flowing outside.
He said: "Our house was just a big puddle downstairs, with water creeping further and further along the corridor."
Neighbour Amy Wang, 23, said yesterday: "It's going to take the whole night to clean up – the carpets and the floor are bad."
The flooding caused a power cut at homes in Market Harborough.
Sharon Green, who lives in Glebe Road, said: "There was a torrent of beige water streaming down the road from the building site where they're building 150 houses.
"This was one of the reasons we all objected to the houses."
Neighbour Phil French said: "The water was all silty and brown and flowed straight under our suspended floors.
"It is flowing straight off the building site across the way and on to the road." The area flooded earlier this month.
A spokesman for developer Redrow has said it was working with the council to prevent flooding.
Flood alerts were issued by the Environment Agency for several watercourses including the River Soar and Rothley Brook.
Barry Holyland drove along a flooded road in Melton borough yesterday.
He said: "I struggled to get my car through on a road between Tilton and Loddington.
"It was hard to judge how deep it was but it was hard to get through.
"My car stopped with the force of the water. It's frightening. I thought I'd be stranded.
"The water was smashing into my windscreen."
Mercury weatherman Dave Mutton said: "We had more than an inch of rain yesterday and that's an exceptional amount.
"I measured 26mm yesterday and we've already had the average rainfall for November, with more than a week to go."
