Cornish village ‘apocalypse’ as storms wreak devastation
STORMS have lashed parts of Cornwall where a village has been cut off by flash floods.
Fire crews raced to Coverack beside the coast amid “multiple reports of flooding” as ferocious thunderstorms moved over the area.
Locals said flash floods from “torrential downpours” had swamped homes and shops, while market stalls had been “swept away”.
Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said its crews were attending “multiple flooding-related incidents” in the Coverack area amid reports people were in “life-threatening situations” with all roads into the town, many on steep cliff inclines, deluged with water.
Two people were rescued by a coastguard helicopter, based in Newquay, a spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency confirmed.
“Six people were in a house, and two have been rescued by helicopter,” she said, adding there were no reported injuries.
It was also reported that a couple in their seventies were airlifted from their home as the flash floods hit.
Residents described the scene as like an “apocalypse” and compared it to the devastation in Boscastle in 2004.
Dozens of lightning strikes were captured on camera as hail and torrential rain battered other parts of the West Country.
At Nare, on the south Cornwall coast, nearly two inches of rain fell in an hour and there were 32 knots of gusting winds.
Reports suggested that some people were trapped in flooded homes and vehicles may have been swept off the road by the rain.
Wendy Davies, who lives in Coverack, said her garden was destroyed but feared many others had lost everything.
She described it as a scene out of a disaster movie.
“It is pretty shocking,” she said. “The rescue helicopter is here getting people out and there are about 10 fire engines all over the village.
“Everyone I have spoken to has been flooded in the village and it is still coming down the main road with immense force.
“When I eventually got out of the house, the hailstones were so bad it looked apocalyptic. There was debris everywhere and furniture being washed away.
“This is the worst storm I have ever been in.
“It went on for nearly two hours and the hailstones were huge. I have had smaller ice cubes in my drink.”
Another homeowner, freelance writer Gloria Knight, took to social media to mourn the loss of her carefully tended garden.
Posting a photo of the destruction, she wrote “goodbye garden ... last seen somewhere out in the Channel”.
Days before, she had posted a picture of her agapanthus, describing them as “about to burst into a blueness to equal the colour of the sea”.
Police appealed to people not to approach the area.
A Met Office spokesman said that by 7.30pm, the worst of the weather had already passed over Cornwall and moved out across the Irish Sea.