Dramatic downpours cause flash-flooding and misery

HEAVY downpours caused flash-flooding in Swansea and Carmarthen.

Pictures and videos show streets and cars hit by a serious flood on Saturday afternoon. Four houses were damaged in Carmarthen, while fire crews were called to flooding in Gorseinion in Swansea. The freak weather came as many other parts of Wales enjoyed a day of sunshine as temperatures rose above 20°C.

At around 3.45pm Andy Joyce was in his shop Carmarthen Electronics completing some requests from key workers when the rain began.

Within minutes the downpours overwhelmed the drains and began to come up through the floor in his shop basement.

“I have been here for 23 years and I have never seen that happen,” Andy said. “It was coming down like waves and bouncing up and hitting the shop.

“The next thing it started coming through the basement from underneath the floor.”

A fire crew returning from Kidwelly was able to help Andy control the flooding and pump the ankle-deep water out.

But he said a number of houses opposite his shop had been badly hit.

He said: “The drains couldn’t cope. Welsh Water turned up and said it wasn’t the sewers – it had flooded the streets before it got to the sewers.

“The fire brigade were brilliant, they were down there straight away.

“It came up so quickly it went up behind the plasterboard. The carpet tiles will be wrecked. We will be there for the next two days clearing it up.

“I didn’t have any intention of going in today, but it was only because I was asked by key workers.

“Otherwise I wouldn’t have known until Monday or Tuesday and I would have lost a lot of stuff.”

Joe Clayfield, a community councillor for Penyrheol in Swansea, said: “We were all in the back garden preparing for a family barbecue in lockdown, and then the heavens opened. It went from a lovely sunny day to flooding in about 15 or 20 minutes.”

The area was hit by a thunderstorm, including hailstones, which lasted for several minutes in mid-afternoon.