Some places were still struggling to recover yesterday, including the landfill site at Mont Cuet, which was closed due to flooding.
Guernsey Civil Protection was called at about 5.15pm by the Joint Emergency Control Centre, said GCP officer Dave Hodge, and the evening saw 15 people involved, including some ‘behind the scenes’ in various operations to warn people away from affected roads.
The initial call followed concerns over access at Route des Coutanchez due to the heavy rain, but then the volunteers found themselves going to Route de La Ramee and Route des Longs Camps to warn traffic away from there, too.
There was also flooding in the Pont Vaillant area, marshalled by a car with a flashing green light on top blocking the Baissieres entrance, and at Route des Sages, near the goat farm in St Peter’s.
In some places the water was about 10 inches deep and manhole covers had been lifted out of the road.
Mr Hodge said people remained on the scenes until the States was able to bring out enough road closed signs, and the last volunteer was stood down at about 11pm.
Civil Protection is called out several times a year for floods, he said,
As well as flooding there was a wall collapse yesterday, likely due to the days of heavy rain, in a section of road between the Guernsey Water site and Four Cabot, St Andrew’s. Rue du Pont Vaillant was the only road to still be closed yesterday.
The Mont Cuet landfill site was also closed yesterday after unusually heavy rain over a 48-hour period, with the ground already saturated after much higher than average rainfall since the start of the year.
The States put out a notice yesterday advising commercial waste contractors and gardening companies not to go to the site.
Pumps had been set up by States works to deal with the flooding, but it was expected to take some time before the facility could reopen.
The green household waste site is on its winter opening hours at present, and is closed from Tuesday to Friday.
Wednesday’s deluge saw 24.8mm of rain in the 24-hour period from 9am to 9am yesterday, according to the Met Office.
The 30-year average rainfall on 11 February in previous years is 2.6mm.
Most of Wednesday’s rain fell between 3.30 and 6pm, with another heavy burst between 7 and 8pm.
During Storm Goretti a total of 22.4mm was recorded over 24 hours.
Wednesday’s rainfall brought the total for February so far to 68.8mm, compared to the 30-year average of 33.5mm for this time of the month.
Rainfall every day in January
It rained every day in January, the Met Office has revealed.
There were also eight days with no sunshine at all in a miserable month, and a further five with just a few minutes where the sun broke through the clouds. But some better days meant that the average sunshine for the month was very nearly achieved and the temperature was just above average at 9.2C.
The month, which also featured Storms Goretti and Ingrid making an impact and contributing to the windiest January seen at the airport since 2018, was generally unsettled, said the Met.
Rain was 170% of the monthly average at 156.9mm and the wettest day of the month was the day of Storm Goretti, when 22.4mm fell. There were three other days with more than 14mm of rain recorded.
Yet it was a drier month than January 2025.
Four ground frosts noted during the month equalled the total amount seen across the year in 2025, though the coldest day, Tuesday 6 January, only had a low of 1.3C.
Low pressure was the driver for the bulk of our weather for the month resulting in the lowest mean monthly air pressure (1003.3hPa) recorded at the airport since 1948.
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