An elderly couple have been rescued from a submerged vehicle by firefighters after becoming stranded in almost a metre of floodwater at Nettlestone.
Firefighters have utilised swift water rescue techniques to safely retrieve the man and woman from their Skoda Yeti at the bottom of Nettlestone Hill, between Pondwell and Nettlestone.
Island Echo is told that the casualties spent around 15 minutes trapped inside their vehicle, which at one point was floating.
Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service have mobilised 2 appliances, a rescue tender and the water rescue unit to the scene of the incident, having been alerted to the life-endangering situation at around 08:15. The Isle of Wight Ambulance Service is also on scene to check over the elderly couple, who appear to have escaped any injury.
Police have closed the road in both directions.
Southern Vectis advise that due to flooded roads in Nettlestone, Puckpool and Pondwell, Route 8 and Downs Breezer buses are diverting from St Helens via Carpteners Road to St John’s Church to regain a normal route.
The water level is starting to drop but the road remains almost a metre underwater. Other roads in the area are also heavily flooded including Beaper Shute, as previously reported by Island Echo earlier this morning.
UPDATE @ 16:08 – Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service say that the vehicle was in 4ft of floodwater.
The service is urging residents not to attempt to drive through flooded roads or fords as the water is often deeper than it looks and may be moving quite fast.
During busy times where resources are not deployed, Control Room operators will always offer advice on dealing with flooding and provide contact details for where callers can get further help, for example Floodline. To find out what you can do to prepare, in the case of flash-flooding, and for the latest flood warnings, visit the Flood Information Service website.
Building THOUSANDS more homes with roof, road and drain run off will help.
But ALL is not hopeless.
The developers will be living miles away and often in another country in their mansions dry, happy and safe.
Just imagine what it will be like for residents of Ryde and surrounding areas when they build all these new houses.
Extremely relieved they were both rescued OK. Not sure I understand why they got in that predicament in the first place.
Ryde got off lightly with 2″ inches of rain, Ventnor has 5″ inches.
Blimey Ball that was lucky. It almost reached your land and the homes your building at the Wishing well.
Obviously no connection between the two otherwise the council would have turned down your application.
Lack of maintenance to ditches, water ways and storm water systems are part of the problem .You cant keep building without increasing the storm drainage systems its not all down to global warming.
Here is simple calculation for the planners and developers to work out that is so obvious that a child could work it out.
Each house that is built is equal to the same volume of water that cannot soak away. That is why there is so much flooding along with poor gully cleaning and river dredging management
Idiots driving into that. Hope they get charged for wasting the emergency services time on them.
Good job I drove through the flood this morning in my lorry of course . They were hidden just round the bend . Fantastic effort from the fire service arrived there in no time at all . Glad to see the couple walk away from the car . No idea how long they were trapped . Surprised too see how many cars just turned around and went the other way ..