London - Lifeboat crews and volunteers in southern and south-western England were yesterday taking part in a huge rescue operation as nearly four inches of rain fell within 24 hours, Rachel Donnelly reports. Homes were flooded, drivers were stranded on the roofs of their cars and farm animals were cut off after nearly four inches of rain fell within 24 hours. RNLI volunteers from Brighton, Eastbourne, Poole and Shoreham used inflatable boats to help carry people from flooded homes in East and West Sussex and Kent and Devon. The crews were also sent to rescue stranded sheep and cows, cut off by high water. There were no reports of casualties.