Heavy rain causes flooding (From Tivyside Advertiser)
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Heavy rain causes flooding
12:34pm Monday 28th January 2013 in News
A combination of heavy rain and melting snow affected a large part of mid and west Wales over the weekend.
On Friday, a band of very heavy rain swept slowly across the area resulting in crews from Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service to respond to a high volume of flood related emergencies.
The Service control room, based in Carmarthen received more than 300 calls for flooding assistance. Specialist officers were on stand-by in the control room, monitoring the weather conditions and river levels to ensure that crews were in the right locations.
The Service received a high level of support and assistance from other blue light services and local authorities in responding to the calls.
The worst affected areas were Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, where crews were called to several areas to assist with pumping and diverting floodwater away from properties.
Craig Thomas, station manager said Wales seems to be getting a lot more of this type of weather.
"Over the last three or four years this seems to be happening on quite a regular basis now where a long downpour of rain will hold over an area for quite some time causing significant flooding.
"And, of course, with the snow that we've had over the past week, that was also melting when the rain was coming down and the ground conditions were also very hard, so the water was running off the mountains and hills quite easily as well."
Mr Thomas added: "We have got to the stage where we are well prepared for flooding incidents now, but we do still need the public to be as well prepared as possible, especially as we do expect more trouble. Looking at the Met Office site this morning there's some weather warnings for us for the next couple of days.
"And really not to sound like a stuck record but what we recommend to members of the public and communities is to take heed of these weather warnings off the Met Office website and also the warnings from the Environment Agency for potential flooding."
