“Water was coming in through the doors and pumping through the letter box. You have to keep calm but this was horrible. The electricity went off downstairs”
A Monmouth resident flooded in Storm Claudia has described how the flood “sounded like the sea” as 5ft of water poured through her letter box and broke through doors into her home.
Brigid O’Hara, said it is the worst flood she has ever experienced at Monnow Mill where she and her husband Andrew Jones have lived for 18 years.
Brigid said she became concerned on Friday night when the water was lapping 5ft against the French windows in her kitchen.
“We regularly flood but this was different. It has become more frequent and worse because of climate change ,” she said. Read the latest updates on the floods here.
“We have a water pump in the cellar but this time the water was so high and so fierce it came up through the floor and broke through the doors and forced the locked doors open.
“I was in the house at the time. It was terrifying because you think it will smash through the glass. I was alone because my husband was working away, but I am stoical. I went upstairs with the dog, who was upset.”
Brigid said as she knew there would be a flood she had charged torches upstairs and neighbours had helped her move some furniture upstairs before the deluge, but other furniture and her whole kitchen is ruined.
“Water was coming in through the doors and pumping through the letter box. You have to keep calm but this was horrible. The electricity went off downstairs and it was like the sea going by it was so noisy.
“There was the noise of trees in the river banging against the walls of the house. You can see them coming at you in the flood outside.
“It was like being on a boat.
“This is so catastrophic this time. We are philosophic because of where we live but this is serious. It could have been life threatening.”
Fire crews offered to evacuate Brigid by dinghy but she opted to stay saying she was safe upstairs. But in the aftermath she says the smell and mess left by the flood is awful.
She is insured and says she will stay in the house because when it does not flood “it has the most beautiful view in the world.”
“I doubt anyone would buy the house because of the flood risk and apart from the flood it is paradise here.”
Brigid thanked “exemplary” council staff who come to clear Osbaston Road and other parts of Monmouth later.
“They have been exemplary, friendly, hardworking and very helpful and hampered in town on Monnow street which flooded, by people coming to gawp at the flooding when in fact the council should have closed the road .
“They complained it made their job very difficult and dangerous.”
She is also concerned about planning permission given to buildings and homes which may make flooding worse.
She said that as an old mill her home would probably always have flooded but used to flood only in the cellar. She has a water pump but it couldn’t cope with the huge volume of water that struck when Storm Claudia swept through.
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