Herts firefighters deal with up to 30 flooding incidents in just two hours during storms

Firefighters dealt with 30 incidents in a two-hour period yesterday (May 9), as sudden and heavy thunderstorms took hold in the county.

The Met Office had issued a yellow weather warning across the East of England in advance, with forecasts of heavy showers and thunderstorms.

And they warned that this could impact on driving conditions and result in some flooding.

The Met Office issues weather warnings when severe weather has the potential to bring impacts to the UK. These warnings are given a colour depending on a combination of both the impact the weather may have and the likelihood of those impacts occurring.

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) report that they dealt with 30 weather-related incidents within a two-hour period yesterday.

In one incident they rescued a person from water following a car accident.

And in others the service was called on to deal with flooding, both inside and outside of properties.

The incidents were reported to be concentrated between Ware and Harpenden.

In a statement issued last night, Deputy Chief Fire Officer for HFRS, Andy Hopcraft said: “Since 5.30pm this afternoon Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue have received over sixty five calls, relating to spate flooding and requests for assistance.

“We attended over thirty of these incidents to assist the community of Hertfordshire with water first responders also rescuing one person from the water following a road traffic collision during the heavy rainfall.

“At this stage the rain seems to have eased and we will work with partners from the other emergency services to ensure that the public are kept safe.”