Alan Butt was just one victim of the weekend storms which saw dozens of premises flooded and damaged by high winds across the Dean and Wye Valley, with the additional misery of power cuts for some.
Mr Butt said Monmouthshire council crews came out twice to clear the drains but each time they blocked again.
He had to give up his battle to clear them in the small hours of Monday morning at the height of a savage storm.
"There is not much you can do," he said. "You just have to let it happen and wait for it to go down so you can clear up."
And as Mr Butt counted the cost of the latest threat to his livelihood he said council officials had more or less admitted that the culverts weren't up to the job.
And the manager of the Beaufort Inn at Tintern, Claire Shields, said the road between her home and the inn had become a river as the culverts, on the hillside behind the Beaufort, failed to carry away the flood.
•Emergency crews were at full stretch following the storms which saw hundreds of homes in Mitcheldean, Littledean, Huntley, Lydney and Coleford without electricity on Monday as falling trees broke power lines.
The main A48 was flooded to a depth of three feet at Westbury-on-Severn on Monday and large tailbacks formed, while many minor Forest roads were blocked by a combination of fallen trees and branches and flood water.
Homes along the Blakeney Brook and the River Lyd suffered severe flooding and the boating lake in Lydney grew by several acres.