FLOODING hit Weymouth town centre as west Dorset was battered by heavy rain and high winds.

Residents awoke to find parts of the harbourside and nearby roads under water as downpours and high tides combined to swamp the area.

Areas of Commercial Road in Weymouth were more than a foot under water, according to eyewitnesses, and debris was left scattered across the pavements.

The Environment Agency put a flood alert out for Weymouth seafront and harbourside and the river Wey for the high tides early yesterday morning, as heavy rain lashed down in the early hours.

The downpours also caused some flooding problems across west Dorset with the Asker, Brit, Bride and Char rivers placed on flood alert along with the Wey.

Many motorists had to take diversions in Weymouth to avoid the risk of getting stuck in flood water.

Darren Nutman, from R&B Trophies on St Nicholas Street, said: “The flooding was down the bottom by the car park on Commercial Road.

“It was about a foot deep. It looked quite dramatic but I have seen it worse.”

Ron Paterson, bar manager at Weymouth Angling Club, on Commercial Road, said he had to take a diversion around by the Jubilee Clock to get to work.

He said: “It was right underneath the town bridge.

“It was quite deep there.”

Mr Paterson said he was expecting more flooding today due to the continued heavy rain and high tides.

Stuart Wiltshire, from Freeform Studio Glass on St Nicholas Street, said that the last time it had flooded in that area, he had driven his van through it and a wave from another car had destroyed the engine. He added: “Now I’ll go the long way by the Town Bridge.”

The Environment Agency issued further flood alerts at the high tides of 7.30pm yesterday and 8am this morning.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: “Flood Alerts will remain in force for two hours following the times of high tide.”

• THE Environment Agency issued flood alerts to alert residents of the possibility of possible flooding in the general area.

Alerts were specifically given for around the high tide period yesterday morning.

Alerts were given for Weymouth seafront, Weymouth harbourside and the tidal stretch of the River Wey, Swanage, West Bay Harbour and the tidal stretch of the River Brit, Bridport, Beaminster and the River Asker area.

Anyone concerned about flooding can call the Environment Agen-cy’s Floodline on 0845 988 1188.

There were flood alerts for: The River Asker at Bridport and the River Bride from Long Bredy to Burton Bradstock as well as the River Brit at Beaminster and Bridport.

Others were the River Char at Charmouth and Mangerton River from Powerstock to Bradpole.

Also on the list were Weymouth seafront and Weymouth harbourside.

 

An extremely wet year: Weathermen

WEYMOUTH Weatherman Bob Poots said that the town had 7.6mm of rain between 5am and 9am yesterday.

A total of 17.6mm had fallen by 3.30pm or about three-quarters of an inch in 10 hours.

Mr Poots said that the rain will ease over the next couple of days.

He said: “With a bit of luck we should see a bit of sunshine, possibly later Saturday or Sunday.”

He added that 2012 had been an ‘extremely’ wet year.

He said the average rainfall per year as measured across the last 30 years, was 740mm.

So far this year the area has had 986.9mm.

Mr Poots said that the ground was very soggy so when the area got any rain it was liable to flood.

He added that yesterday’s high tide ‘wouldn’t have helped’ with the flooding around the Comm-ercial Road area.

Mr Poots said: “Next week the forecast is for quite a reasonable week and we should have some sunshine.”

He added that normally the area gets about 64 hours of sunshine in December and already there has been 52 hours with two weeks to go.

He said: “I’m hopeful we will exceed the number of sunshine hours – which we need to make up because it’s been a poor year up to now.”