FLASH flooding has caused havoc on Wokingham borough’s roads, shops and housing following one of the fiercest thunderstorms for years.
The storm hit the borough during the evening of Tuesday, July 18, and saw around an inch and a half of torrential rain fall in an hour.
Roads affected
Many roads across the borough were flooded as drains struggled to cope with the deluge from the skies.
In Earley, the A3290 slip road to the A329m was blocked with around a foot of rainwater, which then ran over the road and caused misery for motorists trying to get onto London Road towards Reading.
Although a traffic cone had been placed across the A3290 turning, some motorists attempted to drive through the flooding while others saw the depth of water and gave up.
The stream of water was so severe that it blocked one lane of the roundabout that goes under the bridge of A4 London Road, causing traffic to back up towards Shepherds Hill roundabout.
There was more flooding on Wilderness Road – back in December, Thames Water had carried out work on the road after a water main burst and many thought the work would help with drainage. However, tonight the drains were unable to cope and the road was impassable at the mini-roundabout with Hartsbourne Road.
In Spencers Wood, Church Lane and Beech Hill Road were reported to be flooded.
There are also reports of the A4 Bath Road in Hare Hatch being flooded, while a manhole cover has popped up in the road outside Charvil Primary school in Park Lane, Charvil.
Sainsbury’s flooded
https://www.facebook.com/prkemp/videos/10159186672065790/
A branch of Sainsbury’s is closed following flash flooding in Maiden Place.
Water gushed downhill, hitting the parade of shops including Rajmoni Indian Restaurant, Sainsbury’s and The Seven Stars Pub, which had only reopened on Saturday following a refurbishment.
Customers were in the pub and the Indian restaurant at the time.
An eyewitness told The Wokingham Paper that the floodwaters had come down incredibly quickly and about half of the pub had been flooded.
“There was about six to eight inches of floodwater, it came down in about three minutes,” they said. “It was like a river. We thought we’d be in the pub all night.”
Another customer said that at one point all three entrances to the pub we blocked by floodwater.
“The drains just couldn’t cope,” they said. “The water just ran downhill. People had to take their shoes off just to wade through the water.
“All three exits were blocked. It’s the worst I’ve seen it in 15 years.
“But there could be worse places to be stuck in.”
Josh Uddin, who runs Rajmoni, said that there were around 25 customers dining in his restaurant at the time the flood waters started to enter the building.
“The water got inside, but thankfully everyone was OK. We have tiled and wooden floors.
“We’ll try and be open as normal tomorrow, it will be OK.
“All the water came down the hill and the drains couldn’t cope. They have to put something in halfway. Something needs to change to the drainage system.”
Asda flooded
The Asda superstore in Lower Earley was also hit by flooding.
Staff quickly made the affected areas safe and cordoned off any potential danger areas.
Pizza Express problems
We have an unconfirmed report that the pizza oven was zapped by lightning in the Denmark Street branch of Pizza Express in Wokingham.
The lightning took out the pizza oven at pizza express in Wokingham tonight ????
— Matthew Cattell (@CattellMT) July 18, 2017
School closed
Hillside Primary School in Lower Earley has received considerable storm damage and is expected to be closed until at least 1pm on Wednesday, July 19.
In a Facebook message, the school said: “We have had considerable storm damage. Many classrooms and the main hall are flooded.
“Water is still pouring through the lights. Therefore, we will be closed until 1pm Wednesday, on advice, to ensure electricians do a full H&S check.
“We appreciate this is going to cause considerable inconvenience.
“We will keep you updated as soon as the electrics and fire alarm are working again.”
Power cuts and Sky problems
Some residents in Earley have been reporting flickering power cuts and there has been trouble for people wanting to watch Sky: the rain prevents the satellite dishes from catching a signal, while others have been reporting faults with Sky+ boxes.
How much rain?
It looks like 36mm of rain fell at Reading Uni in the hour to 10pm. Further tstorms now developing over Channel, moving north into S England pic.twitter.com/VcvEgTWWkd
— Met Office (@metoffice) July 18, 2017
The Met Office said that Metrologists at The University of Reading recorded 36mm of rain falling between 9pm and 10pm – that’s 1.41 inches and almost a third of the total rainfall for June 2017.
@metoffice radar, https://t.co/1vf35ykGy0 map and rainfall graph from @UniRdg_Met show tonight’s amazing thunderstorms with over 25mm rain! pic.twitter.com/tAier5Ivku
— Caroline Dunning (@dunning_cm) July 18, 2017
Thunder pictures
Of course, very cloud has a silver lining and for some of you that has meant taking pictures of the storm.
Wokingham #England 1hr ago! Thank you Simon Lee, lovely capture of #lightning, staysafe 16/30 #eustorm https://t.co/Yze89nXbnF pic.twitter.com/C2CyEGcgC9
— #eustorm (@EUStormMap) July 18, 2017
