Bill Vernon, 39, a self-employed builder, woke up in the early hours of the morning to find the ground floor of his Axminster house under water during Storm Chandra. “At half past one in the morning my son came running into my bedroom, saying the house was flooded,” Mr Vernon said. “We had a flood straight away afterwards, but it wasn't half as deep,” he revealed. To add to his woes, Mr Vernon was dealing with other family issues, having split up from his partner a couple of weeks ago. He is now hoping to raise £9,000 on the GoFundMe fundraising platform and has so far raised almost £2,500.