Purley on Thames was the latest town in the South East where residents went to bed last night wondering if they would wake up under the Thames this morning.

The town, outside Reading, has been put on red alert by the Environment Agency. There is an imminent threat that the storm drains will finally be defeated by the onslaught of a rising river and unwelcome rain.

One resident, Tony King, has gained shortlived comfort from the pump that he has just installed in his front room. A hose gushes a steady stream of water out through the French windows into the swollen river at the bottom of the garden.

He said that by yesterday there were three inches in the house. “I’ve now got two pumps, including a submersible, which will keep the levels at four to five inches, but I don’t think they will last much longer,” he said.

“That’s why I’ve asked this guy to borrow his massive pump for an hour later on.”

His neighbour, Mark Dixon, stood at his side with the confidence one would imagine from a man who has the luxury of a large, mechanical flood device originally used by a fire engine.

Original warnings put the estimated peak time at 4.15am yesterday. But the worst is yet to come, according to the local authorities.

With a pot of damp seal in one hand, and protected up to the waist with waterproofs, Mr King waded towards a wooden post that marks the historic river levels.

“People have been saying it’s going to be the worst for 100 years. Maybe for England, but not for Purley. If the estimates are right this time, the waters will rise between 6pm and midnight. I will be relieved as long as it is not worse than 2003.”

He marks the 2003 watermark on the post with the side of his hand: 15.6ft from the river bed, still well above current levels. “And if it reaches 1947 levels,” he indicated his waist, “we are all in trouble.”

Mr King said that he believed such extreme conditions were unlikely. His mood remained cheery and upbeat, probably because he is a maintenance engineer and better prepared than most. However, Vaughan King, another resident, surveyed Winteringham Way with a look of concern.

“That one is about to go any minute now,” he said, pointing to the furious whirl above a drain cover in a nearby puddle. “Then that one, then that one, and the whole street will be covered. The drains just can’t take any more.”

At the Purley Park Social Club, chairs were balanced on the pool table, and crews from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service rolled their orange waterproof suits down to the waist to enjoy a cup of tea before the predicted storm. One rescue worker said: “We’ve had a quiet few days here but tonight is going to be the test.”

The bar manager, who declined to be named, said that she was worried about the long-term effect on property prices and the difficulty of finding insurance in the future.One drinker said with a mixture of cynicism and impatience: “We keep being told about this surge and yet it never comes.”

Another regular, Craig Brown, said he was confident that his own house farther uphill would be spared. But he lamented the flooding in his boss’s garden. “I just helped landscape that, with patios and rockeries and everything. Now, it’s all gone.”

With their own house sandbagged and secured, Helen and Iain Baines dug out wellington boots so that they and their two young boys could monitor the floods.

Mr Baines said: “We keep getting conflicting information. You get geared up for these different times when the surges are expected and then nothing.” His wife said: “Rather that than the other way round.”