Flood causes Sidmouth residents' misery
DEVASTATED Sidmouth homeowners fell victim to freak floods last week. Residents of Bulverton Park were flooded during the early hours of Friday after torrential rainfall during the night. Three houses were waterlogged after main drains became blocked and
DEVASTATED Sidmouth homeowners fell victim to freak floods last week.
Residents of Bulverton Park were flooded during the early hours of Friday after torrential rainfall during the night.
Three houses were waterlogged after main drains became blocked and rainwater submerged Bulverton road which leads into the estate.
Pensioners Angela and Derek Partridge were woken at four in the morning by their neighbour to discover the ground floor was flooded.
Derek said: "Our neighbour rang our bell and by the time we got downstairs we realised what had happened. It was raining heavily and it was about six inches deep in our house.
"We phoned the fire brigade and they pumped most of the water away-they were here for about three hours.
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"All of our downstairs floor carpets are ruined. Our neighbours are worse off as their soft furnishings were flooded. We are the lucky ones."
Another flood victim, who did not want to be named, said: "We feel pretty devastated. "It's difficult to know how much damage has been caused. Obviously the whole of our ground floor will have to be replaced. We will lose all of our carpets and there are various other bits of damage.
"There was a block up before Christmas and there was water in our back garden and garage. We thought we were very lucky but this time we have got the whole thing."
According to the Met Office around 16 mm (0.5 inches) fell between 9pm on Thursday, January 29 and 9am on Friday, January 30. A spokesman said: "It was a fair bit of rain for such a small amount of time."
Police closed the B3176 from the Bowd running into Sidmouth from 4.30am on Friday until just before 5pm.
The road turned into a river after it was immersed in nine inches of water which caused a landslip.
Devon County Highways was called to unblock the culvert but surface water remained on the road for most of the day.
The A3052 was also affected by the heavy rainfall with major localised flooding on parts causing slow moving traffic.
