EXTREME rainfall in September and October left roads and pathways in the Frome Valley swamped.
South Gloucestershire Council says that in the 45 days from September 1 to October 15, a total of 397.3mm – more than 15 and a half inches – of rainfall was recorded at one of its monitoring stations.
A single storm lasting a few hours on October 8 brought 35mm – almost 1 1/2″ – inches of rainfall, leading to 23 calls to tackle flooding.
A council emergency team delivered more than 300 sandbags that night to residents whose properties were affected, many of them in Frampton Cotterell, Winterbourne and Coalpit Heath.
They also waded through water to shut roads and help monitor the conditions around the network.
Among the worst affected roads are Henfield Road in Coalpit Heath (pictured above as a drain is cleared by a council worker), and Mill Road and Swan Lane, Winterbourne, which have been subject to repeated closures between late September and the middle of October.
A spokesperson for South Gloucestershire Council said: “Our StreetCare team has dealt with around 50 reports of flooding over the past weeks with over 40 roads affected and 10 properties.
“September was one of the wettest on record with heavy and sustained periods of rainfall across the region causing rivers to overflow and surface water to run-off from fields directly onto local roads, causing significant disruption.
“Our StreetCare team has been out in all weathers and working around the clock when necessary to manage the impacts and support residents by distributing hundreds of sandbags and reopening the affected roads as quickly as possible.”
The spokesperson said council teams had repeatedly visited Mill Road, Swan Lane and Henfield Road to clean drains and it has a regular planned programme of maintenance to drains but they can be overwhelmed by extreme rainfall, with run-off from nearby private land also a factor.
Amy Ford took this picture of rain damage to Pendock Road in Winterbourne, caused during a downpour on October 8.
Pendock Road in Winterbourne, where floodwater washed away the road surface around a drain on October 8, had been put on a list of repairs.
The Met Office said Bristol’s 167.7mm of rainfall recorded in September was 173% more than the long-term average for the month, while Gloucestershire’s 212.2mm was 240% more than average.
