If rain fell at the levels of July 20, 2007 today, Gloucestershire would still be at great risk of flooding.

That is the verdict of the man in charge of flood risk planning for Gloucestershire County Council on the two year anniversary of the crisis.

On that day, the deluge saw three times the average month's rain in 17 hours falling on already sodden ground following flooding the month before.

It cost three people their lives and saw more than 5,000 houses flooded.

Mark Parker, the council's head of flood risk management, said the local authority has done a lot to improve the situation, but more money was needed.

"Gloucestershire will never be free of the risk of flooding," he said.

"We'd be able to do much more than we are doing if we had enough money."

In June 2008, a report into the floods by Sir Michael Pitt claimed the county was not prepared for the deluge. It came up with more than 90 recommendations for action such as tackling surface water flooding and better weather prediction.

Mr Parker and John Parsons, principal flood risk management officer, said they have achieved much of what the report had asked but would like it to go further.

"We'd like this to become legislation, we would like a flood bill to set out responsibilities and identifies who does what with flood risk," Mr Parker said.

Most of the work carried out by the council was described as 'putting our own house in order'.

Mr Parker said 135,000 drain gullies on the county's roads were now being cleared once a year with those likely to flood being cleared three times a year.

He added: "The infrastructure is insufficient to cope with the rains of 2007 but we need to make sure it is as ready as it can be. A total of 6,000 blockages were cleared last year."

In addition to clearing its own highways, the council worked with the Environment Agency and district councils.

The county council gave £1-million to district councils for small waterway, schemes such as the Saintbridge Balancing Ponds in Gloucester.

Mr Parsons said the council co-ordinated bids for money to protect homes. A total of £68,000 was given by the Government for houses in Sandhurst.

The rainfall caused major flash flooding devastating homes and businesses and a plan to look at surface water management is now being developed.

The first management plan covers a small area of Gloucester. Modelling where surface water will run needs very precise knowledge looking into minute detail even down to kerb heights.

"It needs more technical work than we initially thought. In order to cover everywhere in Gloucestershire likely to flood, 30 or 40 plans would be needed," Mr Parker said.

But he said more money would help to get the work done and a 'proper discussion' about the responsibilities coming their way in the flood bill was needed.

He also said there needed to be 'absolute clarity' about power and funding.

"We spent £8-million on flood risk management last year and £4-million this year. Really I'd want to spend £5-million a year for the next five years to allow us to do everything we could do at the moment," Mr Parker said.

But he added residents should not expect all work to be done by councils.

He said: "We'd want householders to help us by doing what they can to protect properties against flooding, and so if it does flood that it can recover quickly."

In 2007, after the initial flooding came the danger of rising water levels on the River Severn.

Mythe water plant at Tewkesbury flooded leaving 150,000 houses without water for two weeks.

The Army and emergency services fought a desperate battle to protect the Walham electricity substation in Gloucester. Only inches stood in the way of hundreds of thousands of homes losing power.

Major rivers are the responsibility of the Environment Agency. Flood risk manager for its west and midlands branch Anthony Perry said: "If the same conditions happened again then some areas would face the same risk but in others we'd be in much better shape.

"The major urban centres of Gloucester and Cheltenham are much better protected but it's more patchy in the rural areas."

Mr Perry said one important scheme was flood protection of houses in Cypress Gardens, Longlevens, after Horsbere Brook burst its banks.

He added: "We demolished a bridge and built a flood barrier around the edge of the estate. There have been five near misses since then, but I'm confident that on those of those occasions the houses would have flooded if the work hadn't been done."

Another area of improvement he said was helping emergency services and local authorities be prepared.

He said: "We've worked with the Met Office to set up the National Flood Forecasting Centre, which began in April, which gives information to emergency planners much quicker than before."

Last week, heavy rain fell and the Agency sent details 24 hours in advance.

Two years on, it seems lessons have been learned but messages left on our website over the weekend show the fear and anger many people are still feeling.

They are calling for answers and for more work to be done. One message simply read: "I never want to have to go through that again."

IT has been two years since residents in Evergreen Walk were forced to leave their homes after Horsbere Brook burst its banks.

Although everyone is back in the Longlevens street, the scars of July 2007 are still felt.

Ben Kemp was just five when his home was swamped with water but he still remembers it well.

His mum, Vicky, 29, said the seven-year-old is still worried when it rains.

"My youngest son Matthew was very, very small at the time and he thought it was great," she said.

"He was carried out on a fireman's shoulders and he loved it but Ben didn't like it at all, he knew what was going on.

"He is still very conscious of what happened, you notice it with little things like the way he always takes his toys upstairs."

Now eight months pregnant with her third child, Vicky is one of many people who have signed up to the Environment Agency's flood warning scheme which alerts residents about any rising water levels in the area.

She has also installed flood doors in the home she shares with partner Jason Curnow.

Vicky said she is pleased with the service plus the new hi-tech warning system in Horsbere Brook.

Neil Anderson, director of SSGUK.com which installed the system, said the monitor would assess water levels and send live information to anyone who needed it.

For Vicky it is about peace of mind. "They have not been tested out," she said. "But at least we are trying to do something.

"There are times when you think 'oh I can't be bothered, I want to move' but then you realise that all your neighbours and friends are here.

"The one main thing that has come out of this is the fact we have come together as a community in the past two years. Before I only knew the people either side of me, now I know all my neighbours."