Pensioner's shock as trees fall into fence

Pernell Nicholson was sitting in the front room of her Wolverhampton home when the trees fell, crushing her garden fence and knocking tiles from the roof of her bungalow.

Her daughter Angela and four-year-old grandson Lorenzo were also inside the property in Pine Close, Merridale, at the time.

Miss Nicholson described hearing a 'whoosh' then a 'thud' as the two conifers crashed down yesterday at around 11.30am.

The 44-year-old said: "I looked out the window and all I could see was green.

"That's all you could see out of any of the windows. Even the ones upstairs.

"We couldn't get out the front door either. It swallowed up the bungalow.

"You couldn't see it anymore from the street."

Miss Nicholson called 999 and firefighters from Wolverhampton fire station attended.

They spent several hours making the area safe before a tree surgeon from the city council came to remove some of the foliage.

A tree surgeon was returning today to take the rest of it away.

The trees were situated on a small road running between Mrs Nicholson's home and her neighbour.

Wolverhampton's watch commander Tony Bucknall said: "The conifers must have been weighed down by the heavy rain.

"They fell into the neighbouring property. We made sure it was safe before we left after a couple of hours."

It was just one of a series of problems caused by yesterday's heavy rain.

Part of the Bridgnorth Road at Stourton, near Stourbridge, was flooded today. One side of the carriageway was blocked, forcing motorists to travel around the flood water.

A woman had to be rescued from her car in floodwater in Herefordshire yesterday, with Pontrilas Road in Ewyas Harold closed off by the high waters.

There were no New Year's Day fixtures at Worcester Racecourse as the heavy rain deluged the course and left it covered in water.

Not all events had to be cancelled, however, as AFC Telford's match against Hednesford Town was able to go ahead after volunteers turned out to help drain the pitch at the New Buck's Head.

The club used Twitter to appeal for fans to help dry out the pitch.

Volunteers armed with pitch forks helped alleviate some of the problem and the game went ahead with Telford winning 5-3.

Tewkesbury Abbey, in Gloucestershire, was surrounded by floodwater today following the heavy downpours.

Flood alerts remain in place for the River Severn, Teme, Onny, Corve, Lugg and the Severn Vyrnwy confluence today.

River levels continue to stay high and ground remains waterlogged following heavy rainfall over the Christmas period, meaning that further downpours may cause rivers to rise again quickly.

Around 300 properties in the south and east of England were last night without electricity. Matt Dobson, a senior forecaster with MeteoGroup, warned more heavy rain and gale-force winds are on the way. "Today will be fairly pleasant in many places, with sunshine across the country and only a few showers across the west and south coast of England," he said.

"But it won't last – from tonight into Friday there will be more heavy rain everywhere. Another deep area of very low pressure is coming in from the Atlantic, which will hit Northern Ireland and Scotland, and there will be severe gales in places.

"Over the last couple of weeks we have seen a few heavy rainfall events across the country and the ground will be saturated in places."