TORRENTIAL rain which accompanied electrical storms sweeping across the Wellington area late on Tuesday (May 9) caused widespread flooding of homes and roads, with Milverton particularly badly hit by a knee-high torrent.

Many of the town’s firefighters were deployed by Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue (DSFR) to help with a major incident which was declared in the Wincanton area.

Residents were evacuated from their homes due to mudslides and rising water levels in Galhampton, North Cadbury and South Cadbury areas, and major roads became impassable.

The Wellington brigade worked with multiple agencies, including mountain rescue, police, and ambulance, and mobilised its mass decontamination unit.

It left Taunton fire crews helping to cover the Wellington area, where they had to deal with a flash flood in Milverton which turned Sand Street into a muddy river and trapped children in the 200-pupil Milverton Primary School and Pre-school.

Headteacher Richard Stead kept pupils in school at the end of the day until water subsided and the road was clear enough for parents to collect them.

Parts of the school suffered water damage as the rain found its way through double glazed windows and was running down walls and into electric sockets, causing Mr Stead to evacuate two of the classrooms.

The school bus for pupils living in the Halse and Fitzhead areas became stuck and could not make its usual rounds, and the campus car park was also flooded.

Mr Stead said: “The rain was torrential when it came, it was a huge downpour.

“It came down for an hour and overwhelmed all the gutters on the buildings and caused rain to flow down the outside of walls into anywhere it could find.”

He said some parents were struggling to reach the school to collect their children, so teachers stayed late and kept the youngsters behind until they could be collected.

Mr Stead said a culvert on the village had backed up, causing flood water to be knee-high until local residents managed to clear the culvert and also a drain.

Somerset Cllr Gwil Wren, who lioves in Milverton, told the BBC he blamed blocked drains for causing houses and roads to flood during the thunderstorm.

Cllr Wren said: “We had a heavy thunderstorm at about 2 pm and since then there has been a whole load of brown water running down off the fields.

“The drainage nearby was blocked by debris overtopping, creating a river down in the village. It was about 18-inches deep.

“We tried to keep the drains clear but I am afraid around 15 houses have been fairly seriously flooded.

“Garden walls have been knocked over.

“It has been a pretty terrible afternoon.”

A DSFR spokesman said there had been multiple flooding related calls to cars in flood water and roads which had become rivers.

The spokesman said: “Due to some impressive rainfall there were large volumes of water flowing over key roads and through roads. This continued into the evening.”

Several houses were affected by floodwaters in Milverton’s Sand Street and drivers were advised not to try to pass.

Elsewhere, homes were also flooded in Westford Grange, Rockwell Green, while roads were under water for a second time this year in Nynehead, Bathealton, and Chipley.

The A38 on the bend at the end of Piccadilly Straight, outside Willowbrook Garden Centre, also suffered a now-rare occurrence of flooding which made it passable only on one side of the carriageway and caused disruption for commuters.

The bend, which was notorious for decades as a blackspot whenever more than average rain fell, has escaped major flooding in recent years due to major works carried out on the Haywards Water stream which runs alongside it.