FLOODING HITS WALES AFTER DOWNPOURS
EMERGENCY services evacuated people from caravans and rescued drivers stranded on flood-hit roads after half a month’s worth of rain fell in some parts of Wales – and more heavy rain is expected today.
On Saturday morning, emergency services were seen rescuing a DPD delivery van driver who had become stranded in floodwater at Newbridge on Usk in Monmouthsire.
Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said White barrow in Devon saw the most rain on Friday, with 138mm falling in 24 hours.
In Carmarthenshire, a total of 98mm fell at Llyn-y-Fan, Blaenau, in the same period.
The village of Tyn-y-Waun in Bridgend county was Wales’ second-wettest, with 82mm (3.2in) on Friday, according to Natural Resources Wales.
Mr Morgan said: “That’s well over what we would expect to fall.
“For those upland areas, we generally see around 200-250mm rain expected across the whole of December.
“So we saw roughly half a month’s worth of rain falling in a day in those locations and even at lower levels we saw quite widely 30-50mm of rain.”
Elsewhere, heavy rain and high tides combined to flood out a holiday park in Pembrokeshire.
Kiln Park, a caravan park run by Haven Holidays on the edge of Tenby, was inundated by water from the nearby River Ritec on Saturday.
The floodwaters were deep enough for one visitor to take the opportunity for an open water dip on Saturday, just before the park closed its gates.
The park told caravan owners the flooding was “unprecedented” and said it had made the “tough decision” to close the park and ask people to leave.
Dawn Hedden, from Swansea, had been staying at the park for a final time in 2020 and was in the process of closing up her caravan for the remainder of the winter following the latest Covid restrictions.
Dawn said she had never seen flooding like it before.
After her impromptu dip in the chilly water, she headed home. She said: “Many of the roads are completely flooded [and] there’s no way of driving through. Some caravans had water to their doors.”
A spokesperson for Kiln Park confirmed the park had been closed while they waited for the floodwaters to recede.
“We have closed the park this afternoon due to the flooding in the local area. Parks teams have been in constant dialogue with Welsh Water about the flooding, which is forecast to worsen this evening,” said the spokesperson.
Meteorologist Mr Morgan said the main, prolonged heavy rain had cleared away but it would still be some time for the full impact to appear, with the potential for flooding and rivers bursting their banks.
On Saturday, Natural Resources Wales had 14 flood warnings and 22 flood alerts in place, largely across the south of the country.
Mr Morgan said further rain forecast across Wales today was “a bit of a concern” due to the already saturated ground in these areas, with the possibility of further localised flooding.