‘We only knew something was happening because we had a neighbour knocking’ – Pontypridd residentpublished at 15:57 Greenwich Mean Time 24 November
Firefighters pumping water from Sion Street by the River Taff in Pontypridd
We’re now hearing from residents of a flood-hit street in Wales who criticise Natural Resources Wales for not doing enough to prevent the flooding.
Paula Williams, whose house is on Sion Street – right next to the River Taff in Pontypridd – says: “We do as much prep as we can when we know there’s going to be an issue.
“The river levels were going down last night when we went to bed. We only knew something was happening because we had a neighbour knocking us,” she tells PA. “She was shouting ‘get the cars moved’.
“We managed to get the dog out down my parents so we didn’t have to worry about her and then it was all hands to the pump.”
Image source, PA MediaResidents attend to their properties on Sion Street in Pontypridd, Wales, following flooding.
Williams says Natural Resources Wales didn’t listen to warnings from residents raised the last time there was flooding.
“This time, there’s only about four inches of water come in but it’s in exactly the same place that we told NRW about last time, and they didn’t do anything about it,” she adds.
“They’ve tried to convince everybody that the flood defences worked. I have got videos proving the flood defences don’t work.”
She says they had one flood alert yesterday morning at 10:00 GMT, which is just the general keep an eye out alert.
“We had the actual flood warning, which is the risk to flooding properties, at about 7.40am this morning but the river had already flooded, it was too late by then.”
She says it was the community neighbours fighting to protect the homes that stopped the flooding being as bad as in 2020.
Image source, PA MediaResidents rescue a car from flood water on Sion Street in Pontypridd