Torrential rain wreaks havoc on weekend's events

[dutchman]

Torrential rain flooded town centres, washed out sporting events and even ripped up part of a road during a devastating few hours.



Coventry and Warwickshire residents and shopkeepers will be counting the cost this morning after the region was hit by severe storms yesterday.

In Coventry part of Albany Road in Earlsdon is expected to be shut tomorrow after the rain damaged a storm drain and lifted up part of the road.

And in Nuneaton shops in Queens Road were left counting the cost after several were flooded.

Earlsdon councillor Allan Andrews said he would be asking council officers to look again at drainage in the area after Albany Road was damaged in the floods.

“Whenever there’s flooding myself and Ken Taylor ask for drains and gulleys to be cleaned and I’m told that they are,” he said.

“But this seems to be a recurring problem.

“I’ll be asking officers to see if anything can be done at a reasonable cost.

“It was pretty torrential. I had a great view of the forked lightning over Hearsall Common.

“It could inconvenience a lot of people though. There are already huge problems on the roads in parts of Earlsdon with roadworks in Spencer Street and all sorts of issues in Broadway.”

Engineers will head to Albany Road on Monday to start repair work. It is not known how long the road will be closed for.

As well as the roads the weekend’s sporting schedule took a battering at the hands of the weather too, with the Sky Blues friendly at Nuneaton the most high profile game to be called off.

Coventry were trailing 1-0 when a freak storm enveloped the Liberty Way ground eight minutes into the second half.

While the 1,690 spectators rushed for cover referee Wayne Barratt ushered the players back to the changing rooms, before calling the game off minutes later.

Bedworth United’s game away at Hinckley AFC made it to 70 minutes, with the visitors leading 2-1, before referee Matthew Smith took the players off.

And Rugby Town’s fixture at home to Tamworth was also abandoned minutes into the second half with the hosts trailing by a goal.

The region’s cricket fixtures fared little better, with just two matches in the Warwickshire League being successfully completed.

In Nuneaton Queen’s Road was also hit by flash floods, with shops and a bar close to the town centre affected.

A member of staff at rock bar The Crew said it felt like it was “raining indoors” because the flood water was battering the building so hard.

“Our customers took their shoes and socks off and helped us fight the flood water,” she said.

During the storms West Midlands Fire Service were called out to 45 separate incidents involving lightning strikes.

West Midlands Ambulance Service received 3,000 999 calls too, as wet weather made driving conditions difficult.

Steve Jackson, from Bablake Weather Centre, tweeted that the city had experienced 20mm of rainfall on Saturday - well below the 38mm that hit Coventry on July 20 2007.

He said the storm was caused by “explosive convectional uplift in a supercell thunderstorm formed in a highly unstable Spanish plume”.

[dutchman]

In Coventry part of Albany Road in Earlsdon is expected to be shut tomorrow after the rain damaged a storm drain and lifted up part of the road.

Again!

I can remember a few years back when the rain split the whole road open right down the middle.

The council blamed Severn-Trent, Severn-Trent blamed the council and in the end nothing was done to prevent it happening again.