Major clean-up after flood hits Cornwall coastal village

Two people have been rescued by helicopter after heavy thunderstorms led to "major flooding" in a coastal village in Cornwall.

On its Twitter feed, Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said: "Major flooding in #Coverack area please avoid this area & do not attempt to drive through any flood water."

The rescues were made by a coastguard helicopter, based in Newquay on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: "Six people were in a house and two have been rescued from the house by helicopter."

There were no injuries, she added.

Zoe Holmes, who manages the Bay Hotel in Coverack, told Sky News it was "very extraordinary".

"We started off with ginormous hailstones," she said, "and then the heavens opened and, just, floods of water everywhere.

"It was almost like a tsunami in reverse. Just torrents of water coming down the hill and pouring over the sea wall."

Ms Holmes added: "We have a house in the village and that was up to above knee height. You can see other houses that are just devastated with water pouring out of the windows.

"It really felt like something out of a film."

Ms Holmes said the storm’s severity was "bizarre".

"People were stuck four miles away in glorious sunshine with no rain and we had this storm here," she said.

A local business owner, who did not want to be named, said the conditions were "quite horrendous".

"It was torrential," she added. "Our neighbours across the road from us, their shed disappeared down the river.

"Our neighbours, just up the road from us, their oil tank disappeared down the river.

"I have never seen such big hails. The sun was shining and the wind was blowing and it was hailing, all at the same time.

"It was quite amazing really."

Cornwall Council said a multi-agency emergency centre had been opened at County Hall, Truro.

It said a number of properties and one of the roads into Coverack had suffered structural damage.

Structural engineers are due to inspect them.

The council estimates that about 50 properties have been affected by the flooding, but says no injuries have been reported.

Meanwhile, a yellow weather warning is in place right through the day for large swathes of England and Wales, with the Met Office predicting a month’s worth of rain could fall in some places in a matter of hours.

(c) Sky News 2017: Major clean-up after flood hits Cornwall coastal village