Families tell of holiday floods ordeal in West Wales

Lifeboats, fire crews and even the RAF rescue helicopter were drafted in to pick up marooned caravanners as the waters began to pour through windows and doors.

Among those stranded in their caravan as the tide rose around them was Jackie Hughes from Great Barr, who was staying at the Riverside Caravan Park in Llandre, near Aberystwyth, with her daughter Katie, three grandchildren, and two friends.

She said that by the time they became aware of what was happening, it was too dangerous to get away – and even the lifeboats couldn't get to them at first.

"The water was just coming up below the windows. We got the children and opened the door and the water was coming in to the caravan," said the 54-year-old, of Grove Vale Avenue.

"A lifeboat tried to get to us but it couldn't as the current was too strong. The emergency services said to get on the roof but we were panicking. I have never been so scared in my entire life."

She said the current was particularly strong on one side of the caravan, with the force of the water moving her car around.

But it was less fierce on the other side and a police officer managed to make it to their caravan, helping them out out one-by-one towards a steep embankment which other holidaymakers had climbed to get out of harm's way.

The group were then to taken to the park's sister site in Borth – only to be evacuated from there.

Mrs Hughes' son Mark, also from Great Barr, rushed up to Wales after hearing of what the family had been through and the pair were back on site on Sunday to assess the damage.

The Riverside Caravan Park is owned by Stephen South, who hails from Aldridge. He today vowed to get his business back up and running within weeks. He said costs could top the £400,000 mark, on top of damage caused to individual caravans.

Father-of-four Mr South was today beginning the mammoth clean-up operation.

"The site is pretty devastated at the moment. We had 60 people staying here at the start of the weekend but it's impossible for anyone to stay here now," said the 56-year-old, formerly of Stonnall Road, Ald-ridge, who moved to Wales to open the business 22 years ago.

"We're going to be closed for the next few weeks but I'm fairly confident we can get it going again before too long. We want to reopen within a few weeks."

Vir Ahluwalia of Dudley was also today counting the cost after his caravan was smashed by another static caravan which came loose in the waters.

The 49-year-old had been inside his holiday home with wife Susan and their seven-year-old granddaughter when they were awoken by their dog at around 3am.

"When we opened the door we couldn't believe what we were seeing. It was like we were in the middle of a river. It was already at knee height - amazingly we managed to get the car to start and drive off before it got worse," he said.

Meanwhile, Michelle Phillips, 37, her husband Donovan and his six-year-old grandson Sam Wright were staying in their weekend getaway caravan at Maesbangor Caravan Park.

They were awoken at 6.30am on Saturday morning by rescue crews asking them to evacuate as they were worried the water would breach its retaining wall.

"It was the longest day of my life – a farmer had his tractor and was ferrying people to the village hall for shelter, and we had to stay there until the waters went down a bit," said the health and safety manager, of Great Charles Street, Brownhills, Walsall.

"It was scary. Sam was frightened at first as I think he could sense the panic in our voices, but he soon forgot about that and wanted to swim in it afterwards.

Jenny Evans, 42, of Stafford, managed to get away unscathed. She owns a caravan at the Beachside Caravan Park near Aberystwyth and has been visiting there for around 10 years.

"One of our neighbours, who's known as Nana Dot, had to be rescued from her static caravan this morning," she said."She's in her mid-70s. I've seen it flood before but nothing as bad as this before."