Gardens | Flash Floods Hit Dorset And Hampshire
Flash flooding caused chaos in Bournemouth as torrential rain drenched parts of Dorset and Hampshire, closing roads and leading to the evacuation of shops and offices.
Water rose to the level of car bonnets in some areas, according to Dorset police, as around 60mm (2.4in) of rain fell in a few hours ” more than the average 56mm for the whole of August. Firefighters attended more than 150 emergency calls over two hours from 10.30am as storms, accompanied by thunder and lightning, hit on the first day of the Bournemouth air festival.
Dorset fire brigade said more than 20 appliances and 100 firefighters were used. Wading teams rescued a man from his car in Charminster, Bournemouth.
“It’s localised flooding affecting supermarkets, shops, hotels, even a private hospital,” said a spokeswoman, “but also domestic premises and roads.”
Central Bournemouth was one of the worst hit areas and Central Gardens and Boscombe Gardens were under water. There were also reports of flooding in Poole and Christchurch.
Debbie Reeves, who co-owns four ice-cream kiosks in Bournemouth’s Lower Gardens, said her staff had to abandon their posts. “The water came downhill through the town centre square and the narrow entrance to the gardens made a channel for it,” she said. “The water just kept coming and coming, it was like a waterfall.
“The water got to waist-high in two of the kiosks and about one feet deep in the other two. We have lost the fridges, microwaves, electrical goods and a lot of stock which was ruined in the flooding.”
Dozens of shop workers had to be evacuated when a wall collapsed in the town centre, triggering a gas leak.
A Dorset police spokesman said a number of roads had been
Click here to view rest of article from original site
|
|
|
