Hereford Greyfriars Avenue flood victim tells of 'nightmare'

One of the houses which flooded in Greyfriars Avenue, Hereford, during recent bad weather was that of 86-year-old Bill Jones, who lives there with his wife Pam.

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The couple have been married for 67 years and have lived in the avenue for 50 years, forking out thousands of pounds recently for flood defences – which then failed.

It meant water got into his home near the rowing club.

Greyfriars Avenue flood warden shows Hereford Times journalist James Thomas whereabouts a six-metre flood would rise to (Image: Rob Davies)

He called it a nightmare as furniture was moved up and he tried to save his carpets.

He praised the streets flood warden Colin Taylor and said the predicted peak at the weekend – which never materialised – would have completely flooded the ground floor of his home, with now-repaired flood defences rendered useless with such a surge of water.

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The Environment Agency, which has seen industrial action hugely impact on its ability to share flood warnings, said a six-metre flood would hit Hereford on Saturday afternoon, but water peaked at 4.75 metres on Sunday morning (January 15).

That meant that hard work from the residents of Greyfriars Avenue to move furniture, take carpets up and even move out of their homes was all in vain.

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Mr Taylor heads up the avenue’s flood action group and warned on Saturday that it was about to be hit that evening by the second-highest flood on record, trumped only by February 2020’s 6.11-metre peak which flooded all but one home.

He said panic ensued when the Environment Agency’s scaled-backed flood warning system alerted them to the predicted peak on Saturday, a day after five homes in the street were flooded as the river peaked at 5.34 metres.