Raging flood water wipes out residential estate
THE moment raging flood water wipes out a residential estate in Kidwelly has been captured on video.
The incident, which happened on Monday, October 4, on Ferry Road, Kidwelly, saw flood water gushing down an off-road track and spilling into the street. One resident says there is just no stopping the water when it comes down.
Gareth Jenkins, 39, moved into his property on Ferry Road 11 years ago with his partner and over the years they have had three serious incidents of flooding which has affected their land and property.
Gareth believes the root of the problem is when heavy rainfall drains off privately-owned land on the high ground and runs down into the estate below.
“The water pours out of this lane opposite us, and it comes out of this lane like a river. Our houses are directly opposite it as they are downhill so the water is just coming from a track that leads between farmland and the back of the houses. We had many close calls of it coming into our property.”
Even though the water has not gone into Gareth’s house, it has entered his garden and his garage, leaving behind a nasty surprise.
He added: “Personally we were lucky here, it hasn’t got into our house but it got into the garage. You can smell it in there, it’s animal fertilizer. There’s animals grazing on the land so you can imagine what’s coming off the land.”
Gareth explained that when the water starts running down from the track and entering the estate there’s just no way of stopping it.
He describes the flooding as “terrible” and adds, “you wouldn’t believe what got washed down”.
He said there is no management of the flow as it’s just coming out into properties and the highway.
Carmarthenshire Council’s cabinet member for environment, Cllr Hazel Evans, said: “This caused a problem at Ferry Road and is related to the natural surroundings of the area. There is a large area of agricultural land that falls towards Ferry Road and parts are quite steep. To date we have spent over £100k on improving the drainage infrastructure in this area, but due to the volume of the recent rainfall the drainage systems became inundated. We will now undertake some investigations and work with landowners to establish if there are any further upgrades or actions to alleviate some of the problems.”