Major flash flooding strikes as storms head to Yorkshire

Picture courtesy of Adam Powers @adamvtpowers, of flash flooding in the coastal village of Coverack in Cornwall.

Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said its crews were attending “multiple flooding-related incidents” in the Coverack area.

A post on its Twitter account read: “Major flooding in #Coverack area please avoid this area & do not attempt to drive through any flood water.”

The Met Office said it came after heavy thunderstorms and rain in Cornwall and Devon on Tuesday afternoon.

“There has been some heavy rainfall around,” said Met Office forecaster Craig Snell, who said the worst has moved north from the region.

An eyewitness said the wet weather hit Coverack at about lunchtime, but got worse from around 3pm.

“It literally just came over like a massive mist,” Karla Wainwright told BBC News.

Ms Wainwright, who works in the village’s Paris Hotel, said hailstones the size of 50p pieces smashed small panes of glass on the building.

But she added: “It wasn’t until it cleared up at 4.30pm, and we could see over the other side of Coverack, and we could see the stream coming down the main road and going just straight off over the wall into the sea, that we realised how bad it had been and how much water and rain had come down.”

Two people were rescued by a coastguard helicopter, based in Newquay, a spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency confirmed.

“Six people were in a house and two have been rescued from the house by helicopter,” she said.

She said there were no injuries, but had no further details on the rescue.

Storms are expected to head North with Yorkshire expected to be hit on Wednesday night.