Heavy rain has caused flooding and disruption across parts of Wales. The Met Office had issued an amber weather warning for rain across mid and south east Wales on Sunday from 15:00 GMT until 06:00 on Monday.
The forecaster warned rain could become “persistent and heavy” on Sunday followed by showers into Monday morning, with between 50mm (1.9in) and 100mm (4in) of rain, leading to surface water and river flooding.
Wind gusts of more than 70mph (112km/h) had also been recorded in parts of Wales and Scotland, adding to the impact on travel on Sunday.
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has issued one flood warning and eight flood alerts.
Flooding blocked railway lines between Penrhiwceiber and Aberdare in Rhondda Cynon Taf on Sunday, and also at Fernhill, it prevented train services between Aberdare and Pontypridd, with passengers being offered a bus service instead.
In Monmouthshire flooding caused the closure of the A4042 in both directions between Llanellen and the A40 at Hardwick Roundabout in Abergavenny.
The amber rain warning covered Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Carmarthenshire, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Swansea, Torfaen and the Vale of Glamorgan.
North Wales Police reported a road closure on the A4086 road at Llanberis due to flooding to the south of the Royal Victoria Hotel.
On Sunday evening several thousand sandbags were distributed to key flood risk areas across the Rhondda Cynon Taf, while dozens of crews and heavy machinery were put on standby.
Council leader Andrew Morgan said pumps were deployed with additional inspectors and drainage engineers on site.
The local authority’s emergency control room was also fully staffed, he added, with CCTV cameras monitoring the culverts being closely watched.
The council also advised residents to move their cars from high-risk areas and offered free parking spaces to those in need.
A council spokesperson said that more than 105mm (4in) of rain had fallen in a relatively short time on Sunday.
They added “no river flooding to properties appears to have occurred – although a number of locations where we had teams deployed were very close to flooding” and checks would continue over the next few days.
The council is continuing to provide grant funding to businesses to enable them to “be as flood resilient as possible” and sad it was pleased to see previous recipients, such as Clwb y Bont in Pontypridd, were protected over the weekend.
Mick Antoniw, MS for Pontypridd, said in an update at about 21:00 GMT on Sunday that cars had been removed from Sion Street and Berw Road in the town with floodgates in place at Clwb Y Bont.
He added the River Taff was “very high” but the streets had not flooded.
Resident James Wilcox was out walking his dog when he captured footage of the River Taff in Pontypridd.
He said it initially looked like police were blocking the road off and were knocking on doors.
“A friend lives on the street, and they’ve since placed sandbags, so I assume the police were ensuring everyone was informed and safe,” Mr Wilcox added.
Source: BBC
