A CHARD resident has thanked a group of volunteers who came to her rescue as the heavy rain caused flooding on her street.

Elaine Merrick-Reed, who lives near St Mary’s Close, had to use sandbags outside her house as water was rising after yesterday night’s (Wednesday, November 1) heavy downpour.

The level of water around her house kept rising and she decided to contact CARG (Chard Area Resilience Group) “as it was the only solution” she could think of.

Chard & Ilminster News: Another photo showing flooding in the St Mary's Close area of Chard yesterday nightAnother photo showing flooding in the St Mary's Close area of Chard yesterday night (Image: Elaine Merrick-Reed)

She said: “It happened two years ago when we had bad floods in Chard. It has been okay up until last night.

“I rang CARG as it was the only solution I could think of. I called the local authorities and no one wanted any details; everyone was saying to ring each other and I just panicked.

“I remembered last year I messaged CARG so I rang them again yesterday and luckily they got back to me.

“They came up, had a look around, and alerted my neighbours because I couldn’t go out because I had sandbags outside.

“They stopped me from feeling scared, I was on my own and the water was rising. They took lots of photos and measured the drains, and they were just there with me.

“There’s not enough drains and the water simply runs off from the fields.

“Now the road is cleared. We had a break in the rain around 6am/7am. Without CARG I don’t know what would have happened.”

The Chard and Ilminster News has approached Somerset Council for comments.