Community praised for rallying to help residents
A COUNCILLOR in a Carmarthenshire town badly affected by flooding has hailed the spirit shown by the local community as it rallied to help residents when heavy rain battered the area.
On Monday night rain started to fall heavily across large parts of Wales, with a Met Office warning for rain and high winds in place across most of the country between 5pm on Monday and 4am yesterday.
At around 8pm on Monday in Kidwelly it was clear that the sheer amount of water was going to be an issue for local residents as water began to make its way into some homes.
Several streets were affected, including New Street, Ferry Road, Water Street, Clos yr Helyg and Station Road.
“The flooding affected several parts of Kidwelly,” said Anne Gilley, a member of the local town council.
“It started to get really bad at around 8pm or 8.30pm, and people went out to help those who had been badly affected. People were out with shovels and brushes, doing all they could to prevent water going into people’s homes, and the fire service attended and were marvellous. It’s not the first time we’ve had flooding like this in the town. It happened about eight years ago but last night was just as bad. We were lucky that thanks to local people and fire crews we were able to save people’s houses from being hit even worse.
“The community really rallied round. It was lovely to see so many young people coming out and doing their bit to help – they’ve probably all got blisters on their hands this morning! It just shows what brilliant community spirit we have here in Kidwelly, and that really showed through last night, everyone came together brilliantly.”
A spokesman for Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that they responded to several reports of flooding in the Kidwelly area on Monday night, including where water had entered properties in Clos yr Helyg, and crews pumped water from the roadway to prevent any further flooding.
As well as sending crews to Kidwelly, the fire service attended more than 80 flood-related incidents across Carmarthenshire, Swansea and Neath Port Talbot on Monday night and into Tuesday morning.