Marooned motorists rescued as torrential rain brings floods ‘chaos’ to New Forest and Christchurch
STRANDED motorists had to be rescued and commuters endured travel disruption as torrential rain caused flooding across the New Forest and Christchurch.
The disruption came as a yellow weather warning imposed by the Met Office was upgraded to amber on Wednesday morning.
With many roads already awash with surface water from overnight rainfall, the national weather agency said public transport delays and cancellations were likely amid difficult driving conditions.
A number of vehicles got into difficulty in Brockenhurst, including the frequently flooded stretch of Balmer Lawn Road under the railway bridge.
Some unfortunate motorists were seen being rescued by breakdown recovery crews overnight and in the morning.
Sharing a picture on Facebook of a car in deep floodwater on Burley Road, Daniel Rustom quipped: “Any idea if the ferries will be running in Brock today?”
One user commented: “I came down through from Wilverly this morning and it was pretty awful from North Weirs to the Rise. I did wonder if I should have canoed it into Brock.”
David Legg shared a picture of a van attempting to drive through a flooded ford on adjoining Brookley Road. He described the situation as “chaos”.
There was a warning to motorists of flooding on the A337 Milford Road towards Everton, on the second bend after Otter Nurseries.
Floodwater was also reported near to Milford Primary School on Lymington Road, and through nearby Downton.
Lymington resident Ted Pope snapped a picture of the town’s quay filled to near overflowing, with the water level right up to the open flood gates.
A fallen tree blocking railway lines between Lymington Pier and Brockenhurst on Wednesday morning added to disruption from a signal fault.
South Western Railway warned around 8.45am that trains may be cancelled.
Ticket holders were able to use Bluestar 6 buses between Southampton and Lymington as the disruption continued into the afternoon.
All lines were finally reopened shortly before 2.30pm, with disruption expected to continue for another half an hour.
The signal fault at Brockenhurst, first reported by SWR shortly after 2.30am on Monday morning, had already cut the route’s services to hourly in both directions.
Disruption from this was expected to continue until the end of yesterday (Thursday).
The south-east division of National Highways warned motorists to be extra cautious on the roads even as the rainfall eased up later in the morning.
Posting on X, it said: “Roads will be more slippery than usual, so give yourself more time to react – increase the gap between you and the vehicle in front to at least four seconds.”
Another yellow weather warning for heavy rain was issued by the Met Office on this afternoon (Wednesday), stretching from 4am to midday tomorrow.
This said parts of southern England could see 20 to 30mm fall within three to six hours, with the possibility of 40mm overall.
The notice said: “Should such amounts fall in areas affected by recent heavy rain (especially the rain which fell over parts of the warning area on Wednesday morning), then further impacts might be expected.”
The national weather service again warned of potential difficult driving conditions and road closures, as well as flooding that could delay or cancel bus or train services or damage property.
