Car stranded as week’s rain falls in just 12 hours

Storm Frederico, which was named by French national meteorological service Meteo-France, swept from Brittany and Alsace yesterday, bringing huge amounts of rain across France.

Guernsey was caught up in the wet weather, with 18mm of rain falling in just 12 hours up until noon yesterday.

Normally there would be an average of 2.4mm per day.

Many roads were flooded, including Le Neuf Chemin, the road that links St Saviour’s Church to the eastern edge of the reservoir.

It led to a lone driver having an unfortunately wet start to their Thursday morning when they were trapped in their car after it stalled in a flooded road.

The Fire & Rescue Service was called at 7.30am, and quickly pulled the car and the stranded motorist from the water.

Overnight rainfall had led to more than a foot of water gathering at a bend in the road, making it impassable.

States Works were called to investigate the cause of the flooding and the blockage was cleared early yesterday afternoon.

Drains on highways are generally cleaned twice per year, but the recent weather has increased the workload for States teams.

States Works operations director Ian Gavet said that the drainage team was currently extremely busy dealing with flooding.

‘The team worked hard to clear drains which are prone to flooding before Storm Ciaran and the following storms,’ he said.

‘However, the drains have continued to get clogged by tree detritus and this is a near continual job, given that most of the leaves have come off the deciduous trees in the past two weeks.

‘I would to thank the team for their ongoing efforts to clear drain blockages and address flooding caused by recent severe weather and heavy rainfall.’

The latest rainfall is putting Guernsey on track for the wettest November ever.

As of Wednesday there had been 153mm of rain, but yesterday morning will have added significantly to that total.

The wettest November ever was in 2009, when 234.7mm fell.