Busy night for council teams as downpours lead to flooding

Firefighters, highways teams and emergency planners have been working through the night to deal with incidents of flash flooding following the downpours that hit Oxfordshire yesterday evening.

Highways teams worked to clear surface water from under the Botley Road railway bridge in Oxford whilst Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service attended 68 other weather related incidents, dealing with lightning strikes, downed trees and property flooding.

Meanwhile emergency planners worked hand in hand with district councils to help temporarily rehome people whose individual properties had become flooded.

Teams had been preparing for the need to respond yesterday after the Met Office issued a “yellow” warning for rain (its lowest level of alert) followed by an amber alert for the south-west of the county.

The busy period was between 6pm and midnight when the rain was at its most intense and in the hours following.

Jason Crapper from Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue said: “The first part of the county to experience the effects of the weather was western Oxfordshire and we attended incidents of localised surface water flash flooding in Bampton, Carterton, Brize Norton and Woodstock among others. Although the west was the first affected we did also have to attend a lightning strike to an electricity pole in Matthews Way, Wootton near Abingdon quite early.

“Essentially the weather moved from the south west up through the county to the north. We attended a number of incidents in Oxford and highways teams used pumps to clear water that had accumulated underneath the Botley Road railway bridge.

“Elsewhere we had to deal with flooding in Didcot, Kildington, Banbury and Enstone amongst other places as well as lightning strikes in Combe and South Leigh. It was certainly a busy night for all concerned.”

The Met Office is not currently predicting any further significant rainfall as can be seen from its forecast for coming days here

All agencies will now as a matter of course will monitor river levels. Currently there are only flood alerts in Oxfordshire (the lowest level of warning) More information can be found here.