A shocking video has captured the moment a giant wall of water flooded through an entire housing estate at the hands of brutal Storm Babet.
Emergency services rushed to the scene of the flash flood that swept down the road of a housing estate on a hill above Youghal, Cork, in the Republic of Ireland, earlier this morning.
Residents raised the alarm after huge amounts of water started backing up in a ditch that runs behind a wall, coming down the river from the hill above them, reports CorkBeo.
A dam caused by debris suddenly burst, sending thousands of gallons of water onto the green area and the road below.
Stacey Lewis, who lives in the area, said: “Fire services have been out here since early this morning.”
She added: “It literally looks like a complete slab of wall has just collapsed. I’ve seen gas canisters and children’s toys floating off down the street.
“Some video from the estate literally shows water going through some people’s houses. The estate’s in a dip, so the houses down at the bottom corner are just seeing water pooling in their driveways.”
She raised concerns that even though it wasn’t high tide, the damage was already pretty severe. She added that it is “scary to think” what things will be like later on tonight.
Youghal had heavy rainfall overnight – as much as 52mm which is almost a third of an average monthly rainfall.
The Youghal Fire Service is still on the scene making sure that everyone is safe.
The storm is expected to wreak havoc across roads and railways from today, with multiple other weather warnings in place from Wednesday until Saturday afternoon.
The red Met Office warning – the most severe – has been issued for between 6pm on Thursday to 12pm on Friday.
As much as 150 to 200mm of rain is expected to fall on central and eastern areas of Scotland and there is a possibility of 70mph gale-force winds affecting northern parts of the UK, forecasters warned.
