Whilst most of the Isle of Wight were glad to see the heavens open over the last few days, for the majority of people in Arreton its caused thousands of pounds worth of destruction and devastation to their homes and gardens.
Those who live on Main Road in Arreton were victims of severe flash flooding yesterday evening (Wednesday) and saw their homes barraged with a torrent of water that drained off the fields opposite.
Due to the recent droughts, the ground was too hard and dry to properly absorb the water that fell from the sky, meaning that the rain flooded the road, making its way into people’s houses and gardens as a result.
Today (Thursday) has seen the clean-up operation begin, with residents from nearly all the homes along the road grabbing shovels, forks and wheelbarrows in attempts to rid their properties of the brown ooze.
A similar incident – albeit not as bad as this – occurred in Arreton around 15 months ago, however, no preventative measures were put in place as a result allowing for this 2nd flooding to occur.
Local resident, 83-year-old Janet Whatley – whose garden and flowers have been totally decimated by the water – has told Island Echo:
“It filled the garden up in about 15 minutes because it’s coming out the field again, we had this 18-months ago.
“I had a lovely garden, and they’ve [the flowers] all drowned now, it’s amazing how far the water went”.
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The damage to Janet’s garden is practically irreparable, with the water and mud forcing both her and her husband into their home whilst it piled up to their front door.
As well as ruining the garden, it has also made its way into their front room as well as entering the garage and blocking the exit of her car.
One other resident, who has only lived on the road since February, has told Island Echo that the flooding reached the garage at the back of her drive and compromised almost £4,000 worth of electronics, including a washing machine, tumble dryer, freezer and treadmill – all now destined for the skip.
Whilst locals continue to clear the mess, the one thing on their minds is whether it may all happen again.
Many of the residents have said they would like the farmer to dig a ditch at the bottom of the field so that it can drain some of the water before it reaches the road, with another resident saying that perhaps the land owner should choose to plough the field when the ground isn’t so dry.
Local Councillor, Suzie Ellis, who is currently liaising with Island Roads and the Isle of Wight Council about what can be done to aid the clean-up, said:
“My priority is peoples safety and the next priority is to try and get some sort of preventative measures put in place to mitigate this.
“If there’s anyone out there who can help, please come along to Arreton, we desperately need you”.
PHOTO GALLERY
Gabion walls is the way.
Shut up you insensitive idiot, how would you like it if it was your property?? Those poor people. Anyone with a heavy duty digger may offer to go dig the ditch that’s so badly needed so it doesn’t happen again.
I believe it is a legal requirement for land owners to dig and maintain ditches to prevent flooding. It might be worth the homeowners to look into who is responsible for the damage to their properties.
Simple cost effective solution, is to line potential flood area fields with gabion cages filled with rocks and place large straw bales both in front, to filter out mud and vegetation and behind to filter finer silt
Ditching would be filled with mud and the sides cave in by the strength of the flow. Once filled they are useless in such conditions
Also gabion cages can be moved easily and can have hedges planted to create natural barrier as used to be the way
Ps my idea didn’t cost £10000 in consultation fees so clearly will not be used.
The owner of the field is responsible for this. If he had dug ditches this possibly could have been avoided.
Ditching, I think it’s called. Farmers used to always do this years ago because they knew what could happen when torrential rain came down and they cared for people and their property who were nearby.
The loss of plants and temporary destruction of a garden are certainly very disappointing events but pleas for help will fall on the deaf ears of those of us having to deal with the aftermath of having three feet of water through parts of our homes when the fire brigade refused assistance, even just pumps, because ‘it wasn’t an emergency’.
On the larger question of the road through Arreton, it is not just a question of the flooding, I was also caught in the traffic when Horringford Crossing became impassable, but through the colder winter months it is frequently caked in frozen mud brought off the fields by various machinery.
…’the water that fell from the sky…’ Heard everything now.
If our good old ‘Clowncil ‘ cleaned out the road drains this could possibly be averted.
When did you last see a drain clearing / cleaning lorry on Island.
The drains must be chocked full of muck!