Flood shock closes street

Shocked residents gathered in the street in their night clothes as a burst pipe sent a torrent of water gushing along a Black Country commuter route.

Water as deep as three feet submerged roads.

Closures were put in place from Whitehall Road in Great Bridge up to Dudley Port, Tipton, at the junction with Lower Church Lane causing traffic chaos throughout the morning, while around 2,000 homes were left with no water or low pressure from the burst in a 20 inch mains pipe.

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The worst of the flooding affecting the area near the old post office on Horseley Road.

Cars had to be towed out of the water while some buses also got stuck.

Mother and daughter Amie-Lea and teenage daughter Becky Sambrook of Nightingale Drive were out in their dressing gowns to watch the dramatic scenes unfold.

Amie-Lea said: "My husband went out to work at 7.20am and he phoned to tell me the water was already at about three foot and he was going to have to turn round and go another way to work."

Spring-maker Terry Flukes, aged 47, of Gladstone Drive in Tividale, found he could not cycle through the flood.

"I thought I was in another part of the world when I saw all this," he said.

"It is like being at the seaside."

A number of staff from Ryland View Care Home could not get to work and the home was cut off because of the floods.

Among the workers was Malcolm Gunn, aged 53. He said: "I got the number 74 bus from West Bromwich to Dudley but when we got to the Great Bridge island we saw there was a flood.

"The bus drove through it and the water was coming onto the bus. Everyone at the front of the bus moved to the back to try and avoid the water which was coming through the doors."

Frances Whittingham, another staff member from Ryland View, said: "It is like a river, I can't believe how deep it is and how much chaos it is causing."