Clean up continues following Narberth freak floods (From Western Telegraph)

Clean up continues following Narberth freak floods

6:00pm Saturday 18th August 2012 in News

The clean-up is continuing following freak flooding which hit areas around Narberth last week.

As the Western Telegraph reported, torrential rain in parts of south Pembrokeshire led to flooded properties, closed routes and devastation of gardens and outbuildings.

MP Simon Hart has seen the impact first hand. Mr Hart lives in Llanmill, near Narberth, where the river rose up at least eight feet and was 35 yards across at its widest, taking with it a 10 feet high brick pillar and a footpath bridge.

Neighbours whose homes had never flooded before had four feet of water through their homes and cars, with one resident swimming out through his garden to rescue his chickens.

A crater 18 feet deep opened up in the C3022 road between Lampeter Velfrey and Whitland – deep enough, said Mr Hart, ‘to swallow up a couple of cars’.

The road will now be closed for several weeks for repairs to be carried out by Pembrokeshire County Council, with diversions in place in the meantime.

Mr Hart said: “This sort of thing makes you very aware of the power of nature. The council is doing an excellent job tidying up, and I have huge sympathy for those who have been affected.”

Further downstream at Narberth Bridge, the Llewellyn family’s home was among six properties flooded.

“We have never experienced anything like this before,” said Yvonne Llewellyn. “The road was a river.”

The family will now need to move into rented accommodation while floodwater damage is repaired.

“We never dreamed that this would ever happen, as we have never before felt there was a threat from the river,” said Mrs Llewellyn.

“But the sheer volume of water was beyond belief. It was just one of those freak things, but has been very distressing.”

Narberth’s county councillor, Wynne Evans, has visited as many flood victims as possible in his area, and said this week: “I have offered everyone a letter of support on any claims they are to make to insurance companies. There were some drainage issues that will be resolved, but the true problem was the amount of continuous heavy rain that fell over several hours.”