Homes in Hastings evacuated due to landslide caused by record rainfall
ITV News Meridian Andy Dickenson speaks with residents who have lost their gardens to the landslip
Record rainfall has meant several homes at Old Roar Gill, in Hastings have had to be evacuated because of landslides.Two major collapses in the town have seen some properties collapse and others buried - with sheds and a swimming pool crumbling away.
Councillors have been forced to create a dedicated task force to deal with the chaos.
While some residents are having to leave their homes, others are left on the brink of collapse.
Ralitsa Hiteva, a climate scientist and homeowner, is now looking for a new home.
She says: "This is the single, most horrible event of my life so far.
"When we noticed that something was happening it was on the evening of Wednesday 14 February.
"That's never going to be forgotten as Valentine's day.
"At 9 o'clock in the evening we heard cracking of trees and we saw there was a big chunk of the bank of the (old roar) gill that was missing.
"The fence of the gill was hanging in the air and we saw that there was cracks on the path.
"And by 10.30 the same day, most of the path was completely gone and our garden started sliding down the hill into the gill."
The neighbourhood is shocked at the speed in which this has happened and many are worried their home could be hit next.
30 metres of land has been lost in three weeks.
Gillian Clusker, another resident, says: "It's like from a war zone, it's just terrifying, it's just a nightmare to live in.
"The future is unknown, we don't know who's going to take responsibility. The area needs to be sorted as soon as.
"How they move forward from this, I have no idea.
"It's quite a scary future for us, it's unknown, absolutely unknown."
Across the other side of Hastings, a second landslide has partially buried some homes.
The council has been criticised for its slow response and a lack of communication with residents.
Councillor Julia Hilton, Leader of Hastings Council says: "I would like to apologise because our communication so far have not been as good as they could be.
"So I hope that this dedicated tasks will now enable us to do a much better job.
"We've had the heaviest rain pretty much since records began in February.
"It's really hard because at the moment, we're having no leadership from the government - we don't get any funding to help with these sorts of things. "
Ralitsa Hiteva continues: "I still can't believe it, I can't believe how much the landscape has changed.
"How many trees have gone, how much earth has gone.
"The thing that I'm finding difficult to cope with was not losing my home, it's the fact that's nothing being done to try and slow it down or manage it it anyway.
"So what's happened to me and my neighbour, very likely will happen to other neighbours as well because the landslip is continuing to grow and it's now growing sideways."
Now under an emergency prohibition order, it may be unlikely her home can ever be saved.
Dr John Barlow, a geomorphologist from the University of Sussex, says global warming means events like this could be more common
"Inland, the UK climate projections are saying that there will be wetter winters and drier summers.
"So if we are going to have much wetter winters, there are implications there for landslides.
"During periods of intense precipitation you have lots of water in the ground, lots of water pressure and that could result in more failures.
"The big issue for coastal erosion would be projected raises in sea level. The models are predicting a sea level rise around the UK and that is something that is cause for concern
"That means the basis of these cliffs are going to exposed to a longer duration of wave attack and we can expect increased rates of erosion and coastal cliff failures in response to that.
"Properties can be made safe but putting in coastal defences works is incredibly expensive and once you've put them in, you have to maintain them.
"So there is an enormous cost to this, we can't defend the entire coastline of the UK and hard decisions have to be made to defend those areas that are most valuable and most at risk."
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