More rain and gales forecast for Mansfield and Ashfield tonight

Although the torrential stormm predicted to peak at 3pm today was not as serious as expected, there were sporadic downfalls throughout the area and the Met office is forecasting more storms.

A Met Office spokesman said: “Heavier rain is looking to spread back from the west as we go into the evening, probably taking until late evening before things start to dry out.”

“The strength of the winds could reach gale force during this evening and into tonight and will be strong tomorrow as well.”

As the Mansfield and Ashfield area was again battered by rain, the current storms have led to four times as many calls to Severn Trent the company confirmed today.

James Jesic, waste water manager for Severn Trent said: “Over the last few hours, we’ve had more than four times the amount of calls that we would normally see at this time of year.

“Most of these calls are to get advice on or to report incidents of flooding, which we are monitoring and keeping a close eye on.

But unfortunately this means that people are having to wait longer than we’d like to talk to us.

Our advice below may help and following it may mean that customers don’t actually need to call us.

“We were aware that this weather was coming and we’ve worked hard to get ready for it. We’ve got plenty of staff on the phones in our call centre and additional teams available on the ground to deal with flooding issues.

We’re also out and about keeping an eye on those areas with a high risk of flooding.

And James is offering the following advice for customers who are experiencing flooding:

“If you have flooding at your home, check to see if it’s just rainwater or if it’s sewage that has come from an overflowing sewer, possibly through a manhole cover in your garden or outside your property. If it’s just rainwater, the flooding should subside when it stops raining, although it can take up to four hours for water to drain away, so be patient. Where sewage is escaping this is obviously a priority for us, so please call us on 0800 783 4444 and we’ll get a team out to help as quickly as possible.

“If you’re concerned about flooding from drains and gullies in the road, you should call the local council as they are responsible for road drainage, but again, we generally find that the flooding will go away when it stops raining.”

Calls into Severn Trent are extremely high at the moment and customers may have to wait longer than usual for a response, so following the advice above could save you some time.

If the flooding is due to rainwater, there is no need to call unless it is still there some time after the rain has stopped.

James Jessic added: “We’d like to reassure our customers that we are doing everything that we can do deal with flooding issues as quickly as possible and ask them for their patience during this time. Unfortunately, in stormy weather, the drains and sewers often have significantly more water flowing through them. When the weather has been as dry as it has been for the past few weeks, the rain has a hard time sinking into the hard and compacted soil; so it just runs off the surface and goes directly into drains and sewers.”

On Friday firefighters were called to Mansfield’s Four Seasons shopping centre to pump out water which crews said was five inches deep in places, after the downpour at 5.15pm.

Crews from Ashfield, and Mansfield, Stockhill and Warsop attended the scene and isolated the electrics before leaving four pumps overnight to drain the water.

A Fire Services spokesman said Boots and Debenhams had been particularly affected by the flooding.

He said: “The water initially came in through the roof but eventually started coming up through the floor.

Other parts of the town were also flooded.

Stockwell Gate in Mansfield was described as being ‘like a river’ during the storm.

Four cars broke down when they were flooded out at Morrisons at King’s Mill junction.

Were you affected by the floods?

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