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Cornish village begins clean-up work after torrential rain and floods

Cornish coastguard and fire and rescue services attend the scene following a flash flood in Coverack.
Cornish coastguard and fire and rescue services attend the scene following a flash flood in Coverack. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Dazed residents in a Cornish fishing village have begun a huge clean-up operation following a flash flood that saw a torrent of water more than a metre deep rip up roads and damage 50 properties.

As forecasters warned of more potential flooding in parts of England and Wales on Wednesday, the scene at Coverack on the Lizard peninsula was described as devastating.

Several people had to be rescued on Tuesday, including a couple in their seventies who were winched to safety as floodwater coursed through narrow lanes after torrential rain and thunderstorms.

Christopher and Penny Hammill were airlifted by coastguard helicopter after the water came downstream on both sides of their home, measuring more than a metre-and-a-half deep in places, before bursting through the door.

Now in borrowed clothes, and staying with friends, Penny Hammill said it had been an “absolute nightmare” that had left the couple devastated. They had to flee upstairs until the helicopter arrived. “It took us out of the front window one at a time and dropped us in the field next door,” she said.

The cost of repairs and insurance in Coverack is already estimated at more than £1m, with structural damage to roads and buildings in the area. Cornwall’s council leader, Adam Paynter, said there were financial reserves to deal with the emergency. “It’s been absolutely unbelievable to see. I think it’s going to take a little while to get this sorted out and tidied up but obviously the main thing is that nobody’s been injured and everybody is OK in the village.”

Witnesses described the torrent of water turning the harbour front into a waterfall and the main road into a river.

A schoolbus driver and his sole passenger had to be rescued. “The boulders from people’s gardens were pummelling the bus,” said Thomas Duffield, 33. “They were about the size of a wheel and kept whacking the vehicle.” Stranded because of abandoned cars, Duffield tried to calm nerves by joking with his schoolboy passenger that “it was a good way to get out of doing his homework”.

“In the end the emergency services cut a hole in a hedge on a property next to the bus and got us both out”.

Waste disposal tanker driver Jessie Richards, who was in the village in his 7.5-tonne lorry when the storm began, said: “I feel lucky to be alive. Within 20 to 30 minutes it was just dropping hailstones like marbles. It was just carnage.” As thousands of gallons of water cascaded over the sea wall, “it was bringing boulders down the road”, he said.

A damaged road in Coverack, Cornwall, after intense rain caused flash flooding in the coastal village
A damaged road in Coverack, Cornwall, after intense rain caused flash flooding in the coastal village. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Rosemary Keane, 87, was forced to clamber out of her bathroom window after becoming trapped. “My son took the window out and a friend got behind me and my son was in front,” she said. “One was pushing and the other was pulling.”

Assistant chief fire officer Phil Martin said the flash flood had left a pile of rubble about a metre high stretched across the beach.

Bill Magill, owner of the White Hart hotel, said the water was “racing down a little country lane, pouring over the banks like these waterfalls”.

Marshall Dagger, owner of the Old Mill Shop on the waterfront, which was badly damaged, said: “The counter, the units, everything is pushed over and all the mud, slime and rubbish is inside, so we’re just going to try and start ripping units out and rebuild. The main thing is no one is hurt.”

The flash flooding in Coverack was the worst to hit Cornwall during the summer since the Boscastle disaster in 2004. “That was a very similar scenario and that turned out to be a lot worse and we also had a similar incident at Zennor when people lost their lives,” said retained firefighter Dale Reardon. “That was a beautiful, ordinary summer’s day and then all hell breaks loose. Yesterday was similar.” He worked until 1.30am Wednesday, helping people pump water out of their properties, “and using buckets and shovels and things like that”.

Some areas of the UK received more than two weeks’ worth of rain in one hour on Tuesday. The heaviest recorded by the Met Office was at Reading University where 36mm fell between 9pm and 10pm.

Following Tuesday night’s storms, the Met Office said further, possibly severe storms could break out in parts of north-east Wales, central and northern England. Forecasters had warned of a chance of localised sudden flooding of homes, businesses and roads in some parts of England and Wales during Wednesday.

In Kent, water had to be pumped out of some properties in Tunbridge Wells after the fire service received more than 60 emergency calls on Tuesday, but no rescues were needed. In Sussex fire crew received 57 calls about flooding through Tuesday night.