First came impassable roads and a fallen tree that knocked out the power for 48 hours.

It was where emergency services and others went first to get urgent messages out: cancelled events, closed schools, impassable roads, sewage contamination.

Or, more accurately, impassable roads, one-way streets and other odd routes.

In our cities and on our roads the drainage systems are overwhelmed when rain falls so hard and this has led to awful driving conditions and impassable roads.

Fifty communities were isolated, with at least thirteen of them due to impassable roads.