40 mm of Rain.

Cary Parade, The white car has stopped, water in the electrics probably, Ten minues later an other car drove past the white car and decided to join it in the stationary mode. Also water in the electrics.

At 11:15 I went for my lunch at the rest room above the Stagecoach Travel shop in Victoria Parade on the Harbour. My second half started on Cary Parade on the other side of the harbour at 11:59 so I left the Travel Shop at 11:01. It was raining, not just a bit of wet stuff falling from the sky but rain in buckets, large buckets, all being thrown at me. And it was cold and very wet. It is only a couple of hundred yards but I was so wet the water was running down my legs and into my shoes so I was squelching along. To get to Cary Parade I had to cross the end of Fleet Street where it comes down a bit of a slope onto the Strand. It was now 11:58 and all looked normal except for the rain. There was no sign of my bus so I decided to take a few photos of the rain to send to my sisters in Australia in case they had forgotten what it looked like. I then noticed that the roadway on the other side of the central reservation was flooded and a car had stopped in the road and other cars were driving past it. I went over and took several pictures of the problem, this was 12:03. Then my bus arrived and I got in the drivers seat and set up the ticket machine and set of to go up Fleet Street. It was only after I turned in did I realise that Fleet Street, which I had walked past 8 minutes earlier and had not seen any sign of flooding was in fact full of water to a depth of a couple of feet. I think I was the first person to drive into Fleet Street since the water had risen. Which it did in just a couple of minutes. One minute it was raining, next we were knee deep in water.

As you can see from the photo, taken at 12:07, it was deserted except for a couple of buses. In this position I had no choice but to continue slowly up the road. There was was coming in through the doors it was that deep. I did get on the radio and let everyone who was listening what was happening and suggest that buses stay out of Fleet Street for the time being. I then carried on to Newton Abbot where the rain had been the normal sort that runs down the drains and stays there.

Other places were also flooded in the Bay including the section of Dartmouth Road by the YMCA. The road here dips down sharply and is for a few feet actually below sea level at high tide before climbing again as the road continues towards Waterside. The spot is known to bus drivers as the Grand Canyon and is the main road to Brixham not just for the 12 service but just about everyone else. All this traffic had to be diverted up Penwill Way, a road not big enough for all the extra vehicles now using it. It ends in a give way at Totnes Road which was also full of diverted traffic so you can imagine the police were there directing traffic. You would need to imagine it because you wouldn't have seen it.

A long day, some drivers were over two hours late by the time things got back to some sort of normally and it must have been a long drive home for thousands of other drivers all round the Bay And all it took was 40 mm of rain in 20 minutes.

Click here for the story and readers comments in the local paper Herald Express.

A few more photes in the Photo Albums on the right.