A Maida Vale family saw the flash-fllooding in mid-July "take everything away" as they lost £30,000-worth of possessions.
After floodwater entered her Shirland Road property through the toilet, Shahanara Miah and her family were forced from their home. With three children and her nice, she's been living in a hotel for 10 days and counting.
She returned from the shops to discover the heavy rain had destroyed her whole basement flat
The 39-year-old said: “We spent five or six hours trying to put water back into the toilet. The flood took everything away.
“If my kids had been sleeping they would have drowned.”
The Maida Vale family have only lived at the Shirland Avenue property for 18 months and have no insurance to cover the damage.
Now she has been left sharing two hotel rooms with her children; eight-year-old Ayaan, three-year-old Ishaq, two-year-old Fatema, niece Nargish, 11, and her mother Nurun Kahtun.
Nurun's home was also impacted by the extreme weather - after water spilt through her ceiling and leaked into her electrics.
Shahanara recently spent £5,000 adding security gates to the property after two attempted burglary attempts.
She had also spent £2,000 on buying the children new clothes and is now considering crowdfunding to try to pay for some new possessions.
She continued: “I thought we were going to be burgled so I invested. The saddest thing is the kids lost all their clothes.
“I did the flat up so nicely. That’s what hurts my soul. In five hours my house was completely gone.”
Since the flood devastated her home Shahanara and the four children have been staying at a Premier Inn and rely on clothes and nappy donations given to her by school parents.
The family have now been offered a two bedroom basement flat to stay in while their property is repaired but with heavy rains expected at the weekend Shahanara has been left frightened of being caught out in more floods.
“I have got a phobia now,” she explained. “Apparently it’s going to rain like crazy.”
Cllr Geoff Barraclough (Lab, Maida Vale) said: “It was heart-breaking to see the devastation caused by the floods.
“We can’t replace precious memories but, if people give generously, we can help local families get back on their feet a little quicker.”
The Westminster Labour group launched a crowdfunder to help people affected by last week's floods.
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